Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

jeremy3 Albert Brooks character is a likable and despicable person, all at the same time. As a film editor, he is brilliant. He is very deflecting and agreeable, going along and getting along with all his colleagues. There are some hilarious "Hollywood insider" moments between himself and his producer. He is very proud of what editing he has done to make his movie more thought provoking to the audience. However, his producer wants everything totally catered to what he believes the public wants.In his personal life, he is completely crazy. He breaks up with his lover, because he thinks that's what society wants. He doesn't want to break up with her, but he has to. Quickly, he realizes that he made a mistake, and crazily spends his time trying to win her back. There are some hilarious scenes. He goes to a sporting goods store and ends up spending a fortune on running gear. He goes to a local track and runs ten feet, before running to the nearest phone booth to call his lover. He goes to a thrifty store and buys all these tacky gifts there to win his lover back. Amazingly, it works. He becomes insanely jealous over her meeting at a restaurant with Japanese businessman.In the end, it is clear that Brooks' character is a man who can't be alone. He is a victim of the romantic notion that lovers have to spend 100% of their time being in love with each other. He is insanely jealous and extremely possessive of his lover. His lover is clearly in great pain and suffering, but he can't let go of her, because that's what society says is demanded of in a modern relationship. The only downside is that the movie is dated. In addition, the movie was a little uneven, and trying to do a lot. However, this can be forgiven, because it is a very good comedy.

ThurstonHunger If the world does indeed break down into Albert Brooks' fans and detractors, then I'm definitely in with the former. We are probably something akin to "negatively charged quarks" while the others are "super strings?" As an experiment, I wonder if a relationship could brook both sides of the Albert spectrum and last outside a vacuum??Anyways, this is a fine 90 minute (so street legal as a feature film) comedy that feels shorter. The alert level for "needy neurosis" on this should be set as high as the scale goes. Indeed frequently we hit the "cringe" zone that Larry David is mining these days with his "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and earlier with Seinfeld.While there are not a lot of laugh-out-loud moments for me, I don't think that is why the film moves so quickly. I think Brooks is just economical with what he shows us, I rarely feel (in any of his films) that he ever stoops to the audience. For the pace of this film to keep up is a tribute to the fact that its focus is a relationship that is going nowhere.Even if it has to visit Idylwild to get to nowhere. I suppose there's a potential deeper level here in that people who look for trouble in a relationship, or in a sci-fi film with George Kennedy, can always find such trouble. Even if it requires looking to the level of ridiculous detail.Of course most films from 20 years ago are dated, and while the song-based humor, the quaalude interlude and answering machine are dated as dressing to the film, I really don't think the message is that far off mark today. If anything, I'd like to see Brooks take this a step further in the wake of Dr. Phil and others and deal with folks who NEED to have troubles in their relationships.If you are looking for trouble in this film, go in expecting to identify with Brooks. Even when he hits moments that most of us could connect with (some exasperation with a parent, odd confessions to a co-worker, jumping back into the dating pool too quickly, getting swindled by salesfolks), he usually carries it to the level of lampooning. It's funny for me, but I think some people want so badly to identify with such a lead character that they cannot let go at these moments.Anyways, I think this is a film worth seeing, indeed you probably should arrange to see it on cable with a potential boyfriend/girlfriend on one of your earlier dates. If you both like it, things are looking good. If you both detest it, likewise. One up and one down....hmmm, maybe try "My First Mister" as a backup test?6/10

connorratliff MODERN ROMANCE is one of the great unsung film comedies. It's not for everyone, in that the comedy is possibly too close-to-the-bone for people who like their comedy nice and painless. But in the post-Seinfeld era, when Curb Your Enthusiasm is a cult favorite, it is looking more and more like Modern Romance was WAY ahead of its time.Real Life, Lost In America, and Defending Your Life are all great, but for some reason this film stands out to me as Mr. Brooks' greatest cinematic effort. (Stanley Kubrick was a fan, too-- he was trying to make his own film about jealousy, which would end up being EYES WIDE SHUT two decades later.)The real shame is that this film is the only Brooks effort never released on DVD. We can only hope that Criterion might rescue it from oblivion with a nice special edition (with commentary by Brooks!)

Eric Chapman This is a depressingly shallow, naive and mostly unfunny look at a wildly improbable relationship between Brooks' psychotic film editor and Harold, his vapid girlfriend. The two have ZERO chemistry together - primarily because Harold is incapable of doing anything besides looking pretty at this stage of her career; but also because Brooks' character is neither interesting nor likeable. There are 15 static, excruciating minutes at the beginning where Brooks, having just broke up with Harold, stumbles about his apartment in a depressed, drugged out state - unbearable.Sappily and unimaginatively bookended by Joe Cocker's "You Are So Beautiful", there simply is not enough material here for a feature film. There is hardly anything going on on the periphery of their relationship to give the appearance that these people exist in a real world. I'm sure Brooks' intention was to shine a white hot spotlight on the affair and, in a way, deconstruct it; but if you're going to do that the writing and acting needs to be far far better than what it is here.