Micki & Maude

"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 ****

Dudley Moore plays a TV-reporter who's married and wants to have kids. Unfortunately, his wife (Ann Reinking) is very career-focused and doesn't want to start a family yet. Moore falls in love with a girl he interviewed (Amy Irving). They meet a few times, not so much later she's pregnant. Moore says he wants her to become his wife. The day he decides to ask his wife for a divorce, she tells him she's expecting a baby. Moore doesn't know what to do, he loves both Reinking and Irving and they are both expecting his baby. He can't cancel his wedding with Irving so he ends up being married to both.

Everyone who loves the romantic-comedies of the eighties will agree: Although some moments are a little boring, "Micki and Maude" is a fun and entertaining movie with great performances of the leading actors (and a well-earned Golden Globe for Dudley Moore). The end is a bit lame, but the hospital scene makes up for that.

Micki+Maude is one of the most satisfying comedies to come out of Hollywood in the 1980's. It is perhaps Blake Edward's last great film, it is also the film in wich Dudley Moore solidified his position as a like-able Romantic Light Comedian worthy of greats like Cary Grant and Jack Lemon. The plot in itself works thanks to a knockout idea, Dudley Moore + 2 wives = Bigamy x Pregnancy. Any theme like that alone would be funny. Handled by one of the all time great American directors, Blake Edwards and starring Cuddly Dudley, it soars. Amy Irving as Micki, and Anne Reinking as Maude are both very enjoyable and frothy charcters, essential to a romantic comedy. One imagines that if he wanted to Edwards could have made this a straight sequel to his hit 10, with Dud reprising his role as George Webber, with Julie Andrews as Micki and Bo Derk as Maude. But Amy Irving and Anne Reinking do just nicely. Michael Le Grand's themes and songs are nice, and the film amounts to a funny and fitting climax. Edwards employs in the fianl scenes lots of Laurel and Hardy imagery and Dud handles this well. Edwards should be proud because not only has he emulated the greatest work of Stan and Ollie with this film, he has created something that in turn will influence generations of Comedy directors. Why on earth this didn't win any Academy Awards i dont know. I can think of an Actor and a Director who thoroughly deserve them.

Dudley Moore is happily married to Anne Reinking who right now doesn't want kids. Dudley meets a sweet woman Amy Irving and before you know it she's pregnant. Dudley decides to plan to leave Anne but guess what she's pregnant too. So Dudley becomes a bigamist. Funny, especially the hospital scene. The ending is kind of lame but this is still a great movie.