Du rire aux larmes

This movie is a window into another era. Although overall snappy and dramatic, it was marred by a strange deviation from reality. The lead character, Georgia Hines (Marsha Mason) plays an alcoholic, but in this world Alcholics Anonymous doesn't exist. It's difficult to believe the actress would spend 12 weeks in rehab and that they'd release her to just slide back into the world without the support of AA, which in New York at that time was thriving, with several hundreds of meetings. So it didn't seem to really reflect the realities of alcoholism whatsoever. Toby Hackett has a charming old-world voice that echoed very much that of Jean Arthur. Kristy McNichol is winsome, but again, it's difficult to believe that any daughter of a real alcoholic would have that much devotion to a drunk parent during the teen years. Despite these unrealistic aspects of the disease of alcoholism, the movie nevertheless was engaging and evocative.

For a playwright as well-regarded and prolific as Neil Simon, a lot of his film adaptations have left a lot to be desired. Thankfully, Only When I Laugh (a variation on his lesser known play, The Gingerbread Lady) breaks this losing streak and manages to give us an incredibly funny, but deeply moving story about an alcoholic actress who brings destruction everywhere she goes, but who is too well loved by her friends and family to desert her completely.

Marsha Mason delivers one of her finest performances as Georgia and is well matched by Kristy McNichol as her young daughter. Supporting performances from James Coco and Joan Hackett are fantastic as well and add most of the humor to the film.

There are a few minor pacing lags throughout, but that's the biggest issue I can think of. Only When I Laugh is more than worth a watch.

Comedy-drama from writer Neil Simon, an expansion of his unsuccessful play "The Gingerbread Lady", has Marsha Mason playing an alcoholic Broadway star just checking out of rehab and back into reality when her estranged teenage daughter tells her she wants the two to be roommates. Fairly lively, bitchy film full of wisecracks and tears becomes flabby in the second and third acts, mostly due to poor editing which might have eliminated the dross (and a few side-plots that lead nowhere). Mason performs one too many dramatic monologues on the telephone, and there's six minutes of wasted film involving two college guys trying to pick up Mason and daughter Kristy McNichol at a health food restaurant. The movie has been designed to show off Mason's range (her vulnerability, her wiseass humor, her pathos, etc.). She's striking walking around New York City in her cape, less so when she's sniffling or giving an actors' seminar on the phone. Mason matches up perfectly with McNichol, but 17-year-old Kristy is shunted off to the side (and I disliked the padded sequence where she gets drunk like mamma). There are some fine moments here, but the picture gets off to a really bad start with an excruciating scene between James Coco and a Hispanic delivery boy. Simon takes one cheap shot after another, and yet the film isn't really about alcoholism at all, it's about masochistic behavior. **1/2 from ****

Lesser Neil Simon dramedy with a fine performance from Marsha Mason. The problem is that her character is so selfish it's difficult to sympathize with her and since she's the focus of the piece that's vital. The result is that you feel detached from the proceedings. Purportedly Marsha's character Georgia was based on Judy Garland but as written she has none of Judy's enchantress qualities that made her often maddening behavior tolerable to her intimates for so many years. Georgia is thorny without the magnetism or charm that would compensate for her petty, difficult and sometimes cruel behavior.

Joan Hackett gives her customarily excellent performance for which she was Oscar nominated but the part isn't award worthy. Still since this was her final feature film role before her death it nice that she was so honored for her many years of quality work. James Coco was similarly acknowledged and his part is more fleshed out but he has likewise had better roles. Kristy McNichol, at the height of her fame when this was made, surely took the project on feeling it would be a good showcase for her but except for one confrontation scene her character doesn't make much impact and it seems the script doesn't know what it wants her to be.

Not a bad film but for being a Neil Simon project the script is missing an incisiveness that is the hallmark of his better work.

Marsha Mason's performance of a lifetime - snubbed by the academy. This was by far her best performance since The Goodbye Girl. This film was not your ordinary Niel Simon flick. A tour-de-force with all the elements: Tears, Laughter, and each character going through their own seperate turmoil. James Coco is great as the gay wannabe actor/best friend. Joan Hackett is brilliant as Toby Landau, the aging Park Avenue beauty, who dreads growing old. Ms. Hackett won a Golden Globe for her performance in this film. Oscar nominations for Mason, Hackett, and Coco. Too bad none of them won.