Micki & Maude

Five years after the success of "10", Blake Edwards and Dudley Moore hit another bullseye with MICKI & MAUDE, a stylish and very funny romantic comedy about a newsmagazine reporter (Moore) married to a workaholic attorney named Micki (Ann Reinking) who longs to be a father and begins an affair with an attractive and funny cellist named Maude (Amy Irving) who he gets pregnant. He agrees to divorce Micki and marry Maude until Micki announces she is also pregnant. Since Micki's pregnancy is high risk, he doesn't want to stress her out so he marries Maude without divorcing Micki and that's when his life becomes complicated to no end. The three stars are absolutely wonderful in their roles. Moore won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy. Richard Mulligan, George Gaynes, and Wallace Shawn offer strong support as Moore's boss and as the ladies' doctors. Though the film is a little on the long side, it remains thoroughly entertaining from beginning to end with one of Moore's best performances.

I watched with increasing discomfort as the premise of this film started to unfold. My moral compass kept kicking in and I never managed to suspend my disbelief sufficiently to entirely enjoy the film. Dudley Moore plays Rob Salinger very well. Ann Reinking (Micki) and Amy Irving (Maude) play their parts wonderfully too as the situation turns into a farce. I became intrigued to see how the screenwriters might resolve the plot in a socially acceptable way. The story didn't end how I might have guessed; more of a non-ending really. I hope that intrigues you enough to watch it and find out how you react to this movie. It's probably worth watching to learn something about yourself!

"Micki + Maude" is a warm, lovely little comedy, so sweet-natured and appealing that it's hard to resist. We identify completely with Dudley Moore, who honestly loves both his wives; his behavior never seems smug or calculating. He just can't choose between them, because he cares deeply for both of them. And because of that, the movie becomes emotionally involving. Warning: this isn't the kind of comedy that will make you laugh so much you won't be able to take a breath; it's the kind of comedy that will leave you, repeatedly, with a goofy grin on your face.

"Micki + Maude" is a wonderful comedy with a great comic performace by Dudley Moore as a man who has an incredible mess on his hands. Moore plays Rob Salinger, a TV reporter married to Micki (Ann Reinking), an assistant district attorney. Moore is desperate to have a baby but Micki doesn't want kids at the moment because she wants to work at her job so she can become a judge. One day Rob meets Maude (Amy Irving), a cellist he interviews for a report. When Micki goes out of town on business, Rob begins to have a fling with Maude. Then comes the shocking news. Maude announces that she's pregnant! Rob asks her to marry him and that he'll divorce Micki. When Micki gets back in town, Rob meets her for dinner at a restaurant where he plans to break the bad news to her. Then comes even more shocking news. Micki announces that she's pregnant! So what does Rob do now? Easy. He still marries Maude, stays married to Micki, and becomes a bigamist. "Micki + Maude" has lots of big laughs, especially the scenes in the doctors offices and hospital. This is one of director Blake Edwards' best films. The performance by Dudley Moore is a comic tour-de-force. He won a Golden Globe for his work here. Amy Irving and Ann Reinking are terrific too as the women in Moore's life, and there's a great supporting performance by Richard Mulligan (of TV's "Soap" and "Empty Nest") as Moore's boss and best friend who Moore comes to for advice. "Micki + Maude" is a very funny movie for fans of Dudley Moore and Blake Edwards. Only the silly ending keeps this movie from being a "10".

***1/2 (out of four)

A television reporter, married to a lawyer, falls for another sharp lady, a lovely musician. Before he knows it, he has two wives...and both are pregnant! By 1984, Dudley Moore's film choices (mostly comedies) were starting to congeal, and with each new release came a sigh of resignation that he was never going to be Arthur again. Blake Edwards (who directed in Moore in "10") allows his star too much time to work his way into comedic fitful states, and continually dotes on Moore as the diminutive actor scurries from room to room. Still, this screenplay by Jonathan Reynolds has a witty edge (and Edwards, naturally, embraces its wild slapstick bent), resulting in some very bright, often very funny sequences. As the ladies in Dudley's life, Ann Reinking and Amy Irving are both terrific, helping Moore and Edwards turn out their best film in years. **1/2 from ****