Un couple parfait

Possibly Altman's least well known theatrically released film, done in an era where he was making a lot of duds. Personally, I don't consider any Altman films duds – they're all interesting, at least. And this one is no exception. It's a quirky romantic comedy starring Paul Dooley and Marta Heflin. Dooley comes from a stuffy, old-fashioned Greek family steeped in classical music, and Heflin is a rock singer living in a hippie commune. The two meet through a video dating service, and the film depicts their rocky road to love. Altman's direction is very good, as usual, the script has a good palindromic structure, and I quite like the original songs. One big problem that I had is that Dooley comes on way too strong on that first date and the day afterward, almost creepy. Not a great film, but certainly a film that shouldn't be as forgotten as it is.

Producer/director Robert Altman's 1979 film is a Los Angeles set romantic comedy drama about a seemingly chalk and cheese relationship between a U. S./Greek businessman called Alex (Paul Dooley) and a young singer called Sheila (Marta Heflin) who meet through the 'Great Expectations' video dating service. Their different (and similar) lifestyles are contrasted, as are the different families of 'freaks' and 'weirdos' both belong to. Not Altman at his best, indeed one of his least known films, it is comic and poignant (as written by Altman and Allan Nicholls), has vague echoes of 'Follow Me' and 'Breezy' , a mysterious couple who help the relationship of Alex and Sheila at crucial moments, as well as unmemorable musical bits.

Paul Dooley and Marta Heflin play a most decidedly IMperfect couple in Robert Altman's version of a romantic comedy. His claim at the time (justified) is that Hollywood had always allowed only beautiful people to fall in love, so he wanted to make a romance with a couple of ordinary folk. He succeeded when he found the paunchy Dooley and the distractingly skinny (nearly anorexic) Heflin for his leads, but the film itself is not much of a success. This came out during Altman's "experimental" period, meaning he threw together some disparate elements and hoped for the best. Actually, it's quite accessible for Altman, considering "Quintet" came out in the same year, and it's one of his least Altman-like projects. Unfortunately, it's those very qualities that also make it one of his least interesting and ugliest from a purely visual standpoint.

The film does boast some good if dated music though, performed by the real-life band Keepin' Em Off the Streets, led by Ted Neely, most known for playing the role of Jesus in the film version of "Jesus Christ Superstar" (and whom I saw perform the role on stage in a touring version).

Grade: C

I loved this movie from the first time I saw it. Sure, it's basically a new take on Romeo and Juliet, but it's still a good flick. The music is undoubtedly the best part {especially when "Bobbie" sings 'Lonely Millionaire (swoon)}--if Keepin' 'Em Off the Streets were a real band, I'd be their biggest fan.

Does anyone know how I might get a copy of A Perfect Couple?

Off the wall romantic comedy with one of the strangest plots I've ever seen. A middle aged man who still lives at home with his entire family falls for a woman 20 years his junior. This causes tension within his family, especially with the domineering father, a real tyrant. This guy is well into his fifties and still lets his father tell him he can't bring a woman home with him as though he were still a teen. Very weird family. The woman is a real loser type who needs a man to feed off of emotionally. They haven't got a chance. Very entertaining film with lots of shrill singing sequences and some good, and at times bizarre, dialogue. Great ending as the camera shows us the perfect couple after the rice has fallen from their hair and then pans over to the other perfect couple cynically revealing history in the process of repeating itself.