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Wealthy Beverly Hills socialite Trish Rawlings (Lily Tomlin) is currently residing in a beach side residence as she engages in a separation from her husband Stu (Bert Kramer) following his extramarital affair. While in town shopping she encounters drifter Strip (John Travolta) who remembers her from a valet parking job where she took responsibility for a dent in the car her husband blamed on him. Strip makes flirtatious advances towards Trish which are initially unwelcome, but as she encounters him on the beach she begins to develop feelings for him.

Moment by Moment was the third film starring John Travolta made by producer Robert Stigwood following the successes of both Saturday Night Fever and Grease. The film was set to co-star Lily Tomlin who'd scored two well regarded features with Nashville earning her an Academy Award Nomination and The Late Show also garnering strong critical praise. The project moved forward with Tomlin's partner and future wife, Jane Wagner, taking writing and direction duties for the film. While both Tomlin and Travolta had a pleasant experience working together, both were blindsided by the end product of the movie. Word had gotten out that the chemistry between leads Tomlin and Travolta rivaled that of "Menachem Begin and Yassar Arafat" and Universal hired Saturday Night Fever DP Ralf D. Bode to co-direct with Wagner but credited him as "technical advisor". Stigwood even tried to have Wagner fired from the movie at one point but backed down after resistance from both Tomlin and Travolta. When the movie was released it was eviscerated by critics and audiences with many citing the lack of chemistry between the leads. Box office was also quite underwhelming with the film making $10 million against its $8 million budget falling well short of the standards of Saturday Night Fever or Grease. Moment by Moment is a blot on the careers of both Tomlin and Travolta, but one they were easily able to move past with Travolta scoring a hit with Urban Cowboy and Tomlin getting success with 9 to 5. Moment by Moment however is still as uncomfortable and awkward as it was when first released.

While the movie is titled "Moment by Moment", a more proper title would be "Just Go Away Already", because most of the first part of this movie is Travolta's character strip making advances towards Tomlin's Trish while she keeps rejecting him but he keeps showing back up because he either has "friends nearby" or conveniently forgets little articles he has to return for. The movie is mostly just scenes of Tomlin and Travolta together with few extras and minimal supporting characters so the movie basically lives or dies solely on the chemistry of our leads. The movie's basically a parade of scenes with our characters taking turns getting annoyed at one another with the pendulum shifting back and forth between who's annoyed by whom. There's minor subplots or background elements in the movie such as Strip's never seen best friend Gregg who's only ever mentioned by Strip and we never actually see any of the things surrounding that character, or things going on with Trish's social circle such as a party scene with a theme of pictures of feet called, no joke, "footography". I don't know if this is satire of something specific, but whatever purpose it had back in the day wasn't all that resonant and it's only gotten more confusing with the passage of time. I'll say the music and cinematography is well done, but the fact this movie costs $2 million more than Grease is absurd because this feels like this should be $4 million at most especially with how most of the time it's just Tomlin and Travolta pratting about.

Moment by Moment is a romance with two leads who exude anti-chemistry. Both are fantastic actors and on paper it seems like a winning combo, but an awkward delivery devoid of sexual energy just kills the movie from being engaging on that level. There's probably been worse love stories that were either more bland, toxic, or preposterous, but more often than not they at least give you additional elements beyond the core romance to make up for those shortcomings. Moment by Moment doesn't have any additional elements to fall back on and is just being stuck with two people who are as annoyed with each other as we are by them.

I have never laughed my fool head off so hard as when I read some of the reviews here. But why be mean to Lily? MALE actors cast themselves ALL THE TIME opposite leading ladies far younger and even more COMPLETELY out of their league. (Woody Allen, Jack Nicholson, Sean Connery anyone?) That being said, the main reason to watch this is that it's so not ABOUT anything that it's surreal. If you put yourself in the context of the ME decade, you can see what Jane Wagner was going for here, two people "finding themselves." The trick is making anyone else care. Well, I cared, in the same sense that I care when I see a pile-up on the freeway. Still, if you like Travolta's hairy chest this is a good one watch it in. (If you like it waxed, see "Two of a Kind.") If you want to see Lily in an atypical role, this is the one to watch too. Let's face it, as film disasters go, I'll take this over "The Majestic" any day!

Wretched, empty romantic drama gives the word 'shallow' a whole new face. Soon-to-be-divorced Malibu housewife (Lily Tomlin) wanders around Hollywood and the beach, running her fingers through her hair, coddling her mutt and rubbing her forehead; seems a stud like John Travolta is just what she needs, but he's more puppy dog than pouncing lover (annoying, childish, needy, clinging). There's a good line here and there: I liked it when Lily Tomlin says, "I've never had cheap sex...I have to admit I was looking forward to it." But Travolta's character ("Strip"!) is ridiculous and hasn't been thought out; he's just a bleeding heart ex-runaway looking for true love. It feels about as real as a cartoon. *1/2 from ****

I caught this stink bomb a couple of months ago and watched out of morbid fascination. It really, Really sucks. I can't believe it didn't sink Travolta's career. He should've had his head examined for playing this crappy part. Fortunately, he rebounded and made much better films. I only watched it b/c I'd read about how horrible it is. Lame dialogue and a completely unsexy atmosphere make this more painful than drinking Drano.

A magazine recently posed the question about "Moment by Moment": "Ever wonder what might make you kill yourself? How about two hours of a young John Travolta prancing around in his tighty whiteys, repeatedly banging (what could pass for) his mother?" Well, the magazine was close to correct.

Stupid! Possibly the dumbest script for a full-budget movie in Hollywood history, and the "chemistry" between Tomlin and Travolta is utterly laughable. The direction is as clumsy as you are ever likely to see. Only a pretty lively soundtrack saves it from being my #1 worst movie of all-time. Feeling charitable, I give it 2/10.