The Lonely Guy

You need to see this underrated Steve Martin comedy from the 80s called The Lonely Guy about a guy who lives by himself and wrote a bestseller about lonlieness and became a success. It's really funny.

This movie started out with a bang when I first saw it as a child. I was really disappointed when I could not watch it in its entirety. So when I had a chance to rent it, I jumped at the chance and I am rather sad I did. The first half was still funny, but all the stuff I missed was sadly worth missing. Not that it was all bad mind you, there was a chuckle or two in this part of the movie, but nothing compared to the laughs found in the first half of the film from when Steve finds out his girlfriend has been cheating on him, to the restaurant, to the strange jogging using fake sweat. Then a bit before he writes his book on how to be a lonely guy the movie really slows down its pace and it becomes a bit to sentimental at times, while still showing a bit of the zaniness that made the first half of the film really good. The story is about a lonely guy who starts off with a girlfriend, but ends up alone in rather funny fashion. He makes friends with another lonely guy played very well by Charles Grodin and they proceed to try and help each other out. Like I said you get some great scenes during this time and Steve meets up with a girl he for some reason cannot hook up with due to one problem after another. So in the end an okay movie, that just needed some of that energy from the first half of the film to carry over to the second.

The Lonely Guy is often quite funny but unfortunately sometimes dreadfully dull. Like Jim Abrahams and later Mel Brooks movies, this is classic Neil Simon where he throws rapid-fire jokes at you. Some hit and some miss, but you don't have to wait long for the next one. The scene where he dines alone in a fancy restaurant was one of the funniest. Somebody else seemed to think so, too, as it was copied almost verbatim for an Australian TV commercial two years later. Imitation must be the sincerest form of flattery.

As a New Yorker, I liked seeing the city in this movie. It's a somewhat dirtier but more variegated New York than in movies like "Ghost" or "When Harry Met Sally," which spent too much time in tony neighborhoods like Tribeca, the Village and Midtown.

Unfortunately, the definitive home video version does not exist and probably never will. The laserdisc is marred by a bad transfer and excessive, very objectionable video and audio noise. This may be the dreaded laser rot in action or just bad production. The DVD is beautiful, with a crisp transfer and no noticeable noise. But its 1.85:1 widescreen presentation is in the form of matting/masking the 1.33:1 Academy Frame, so instead of showing more picture, it actually shows less than the cassette and the laserdisc. The matting makes the "widescreen" frame feel distractingly cramped, with characters' heads continually butting up against the top. One joke in particular suffers badly: When Larry is laying on a bed talking to a woman, he's bare-chested in his fantasy to imply they're in bed together. But the widescreen version shows only his head, so the joke is weakened. Too bad a full-frame DVD will probably never be made as this is one of the few times when a full-frame presentation would have been preferable.

I'd call this a small masterpiece.

I usually watch just ten minutes of a movie, find it boring, then discard it. Or, I fast forward through great big sections of a film and get satisfaction from the leftover bits and pieces. With this one I never once reached for the fast forward button. It is charming, touching, lovely, hilarious and satisfying. One cares deeply for the characters played by Martin and Grodin and wants happiness to come their way.

The sadness never overwhelms because the lighthearted scenes make for a perfect balance.

You could go through a whole row at Blockbuster and not find a gem like this one. If you have even just a touch of a tender heart, by all means rent this one.

The Lonely Guy (1984) Director: Arthur Hiller Watched: 12/26/19 Rating: 3/5

"I don't like to take naps. I don't like to wake up more than once a day. 'Cause when I first wake up I get that shock of who I am and everything. I... I really don't like to do that more than once a day."

A favorite quote, which shows how this film managed to be funny although it did at times go maybe too far in minimizing or making light of suicide (other examples include the nonchalant freak show of falling bodies on the Manhattan Bridge, suicides reported casually on the radio after the weather announcements). But this is a black comedy after all and Steve Martin makes up for this with his hilarious shenanigans. Favorite shticks included: spotlight activated for a single diner; psychiatrist via apartment call box; automated chess machine friend; ferns as friends; fake sweat for possible running meet-cute; party cutouts from "The Lonely Guy Store"; renting a guy to talk to your girlfriend or wife so she won't wait for you alone in a bar; donating blood in order to lay in bed with a woman; and man on foot "pulled over" by a police officer who then"escorts" him on foot, all along regular traffic on the move!

Steve Martin is certainly in his element and is slowed down only by the subpar writing. Which makes sense as to why he usually writes and directs the films he stars in. I have no doubt that "The Lonely Guy" would have been much better received if this were the case. The first 45 minutes of this film were outstanding- Hubbard is a newly minted Lonely Guy, does his best to cope and find a new girl, and his antics keep us engaged and laughing. But the story quickly runs out of steam after he gets inexplicably hooked on Iris and the writing loses its wittiness.

Cameos by Merv Griffin and Doctor Joyce Brothers were a nice touch but not quite enough to save the latter half of the film.

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