Love Thy Neighbor

John Ritter and Penny Marshall lead a capable TV movie comedy cast in this tale of moral love in suburbia that somehow fails to ever really get off the ground. Director Tony Bill does an able job and the lack of sparkle is, for me, something of a mystery. The early scenes are played, perhaps, a bit too slow and straight. The situation of the affair that triggers the plot, perhaps, is telegraphed or maybe it tries too hard to be the anti-BOB & CAROL & TED AND ALICE in its own, TV-clean way. Certainly there is nothing in the dialogue to raise it above average.

In any case, there is nothing that seems to me to be clearly wrong with this movie, and it may work out better for you, if you are fond of the early 1980s. But I think not.

I have always remembered this off-beat comedy with a youngish Penny Marshall and a young John Ritter. Yes, it moved a bit slow and belabored the aftermath of the separation of the two couples, but it is made-for-tv so does not get all the Hollywood bells and whistles. But there were many memorable lines and moments, for example when Penny Marshall's character Linda Wilson starts dating a younger man and he breaks up with her because she is older and her reaction made me laugh out loud, or when John Ritter's character Danny Loeb tells her that he can have a "cornucopia" of women because younger women are always available to men. Guess who had the egg of their face?

This movie reminds me of why Penny Marshall and John Ritter were so beloved by so many. I truly miss them. The acting was evocative and shined a light on the consequences of families breaking up. Back in the 1980s being divorced was still considered a stigma. Unfortunately, due to its prevalence now in the 2020s, you might be hard-pressed to find someone NOT divorced. My neighbor's teen-age children have known nothing but shared custody their whole lives.

You can look up this movie online and purchase it, so if you enjoy lighthearted romantic comedies with a relevant social message, watch Love Thy Neighbor (1984).