Made for Each Other

I saw this as a half of a double feature on a double date in the 1970s. Three of the four of us preferred the other film ("Marriage of a Young Stockbroker"?), but I liked this one and went back to see it again. It IS a funny film, but also a believable love story with (understandably) good chemistry between the two leads. And no other reviewer has mentioned that Bologna was pretty hot back in the day if you like those Big types. It is borderline painful to watch Renee Taylor's various "acts" as she skates close to some sort of showbiz fame--sort of a proto-Bridget Jones--but you have to admire the candor of these two writers in filming this autobiographical material, warts and all.

Great comedy is rarer than the unicorn. Why keep this funniest of funny films from us? How about the initial scene with the encounter group and the hyper-anxiety frazzled to the bone woman complaining about the toilet that has leaked for years on end and has driven her far beyond mad. To which another male group participant meekly offers, "Did you try jiggling the handle?"

Joe Bologna and Renee Taylor hit a homer with this one. Unfortunately, the critics must have been busy at the concession stands when they rounded the bases. Where is the DVD? You might not find a better acted script or one that seems so believable despite its over-the-top characters. Giggy and Pandora are unforgettable as evidenced by the resonance the film left with me even after these 35 years since its release, the first and last time I saw it. The scene in which Pandora meets Giggy's parents and relatives at dinner is a classic. Director Robert Bean allowed the top notch cast to relate as they would in a real life situation, and it worked wonderfully. Joe Bologna and Renee Taylor are under-appreciated national treasures!

Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna wrote and star in this story of two hopelessly lost souls who find one another. Each is the product of a dysfunctional home and each has struggled to find an anchor in this world. Their adult years are filled with failure and heartache and endless searching ... until they find each other.

This comedy/drama is a showcase for Renee Taylor who mines much of her own life for the character of Panda Gold, a hilariously untalented woman yearning to become a star and with a stage mother (Helen Verbit) to end all stage mothers. Bologna stars as Giggy Panimba, the coddled mama's boy who also fails at everything he tries ... including entering a seminary ... with his mama (Olympia Dukakis) right behind him.

They meet in a group therapy session and form an on-and-off alliance against the world that may or may not lead to a happy ending.

Taylor is funny and heartbreaking as she haplessly veers from job to job, always sure stardom and happiness await her. Her night club act in which she asks the coy question, "who am I now"? while doing a terrible impersonation of Rita Hayworth singing "Fire Down Below" is so bad it's funny. Bologna is appalled and tells her the act is terrible, but nothing penetrates, and she persists in thinking herself supremely talented. Audiences are just too dumb to get her act.

Co-stars include Paul Sorvino and Louis Zorich as the fathers, Peggy Pope, Ron Carey, Despo, and Norman Shelley as group members. Look fast for Adam Arkin, Candy Azzara, Eddie Barth, and Nancy Andrews.

In real life, the couple won an Oscar nomination and Writer's Guild nomination for the film version of their play "Lovers and Other Strangers" and earned another Writer's Guild nomination for this film.

Wonderful film.

Can two therapy session flunk-outs (Taylor&Bologna) at last find happiness, maybe with each other?

Hilarious original. I laughed from beginning to end. It may be New York centered, but the humor has broad everyday appeal. Take that family dinner at Giggy's (Bologna) parents, a feast from heck. Catch the guys at the table. Think they're going to miss a bite with all the hysterical women yelling and crying around them. Heck no. They just keep chomping away like all the bickering and hubbub is an everyday event, which it probably is.

What a beautifully observed narrative. Note how often the camera focuses on reactions to the speaker instead of the speaker herself. Some of those expressions are priceless, especially during that wacky therapy session that ends up in a group dog-pile. Or catch Panda's (Taylor) cheesy nightclub act, where the humiliated Giggie wishes he could disappear but doesn't know where the magic might come from. The movie's really a series of these hilarious set-ups, as the two balky lovebirds try to figure out who they are.

But no wonder they have an identity problem. In hilarious flashback, we learn how the two hapless kids are bombarded by humorously unfulfilled parents. As a result, Panda chases fame with the world's worst show-biz act, while a confused Giggie goes from the priesthood to Black Power to the Marines and into therapy.

The movie's also poignant at times and in a non-sappy way. Since each of the lovebirds figures the other is just temporary, they're constantly demeaning the other in thoughtless ways. Of course, it's usually done in humorous fashion, as when Panda dumps the naked Giggie onto her bedroom floor and into the clutches of her addled mother, while she rushes off to her existential nightclub act. Actually, they keep bumping off one another like a couple of careening billiard balls.

I expect Taylor and Bologna worked their own relationship into the material. But whatever the source, the movie's expertly done, with a comedic flavor unlike any I've seen. In fact, the 100-minutes holds up surprisingly well, even after four decades, probably because it's so richly human as some might say, with just the right touch throughout. Anyway, in my little book, the movie's a genuine sleeper from start to finish.