L'amour en vedette

Jeff Daniels ("Dumb and Dumber." 1994) and Patricia Heaton (T.V.'s "Everybody Loves Raymond") team up in this made-for-TV remake of Neil Simon's 1977 original. Elliot Garfield (Daniels) is forced to share an apartment with Paula (Heaton), and her 11ish-year-old daughter, Lucy (Hallie Kate Eisenberg--the "Pepsi girl" of the late '90s). At first there is incredible housemate static, but as time passes feelings for each other begin to surface.

I actually saw the movie premiere in an Ann Arbor, MI historical theater. Daniels himself gave the introduction. Some dialogue seems forced, especially from Eisenberg. And the shared apartment is quite unbelievably luxurious for two, supposedly strapped-for-cash performing artists. Funny scenes and clever dialogue snippets save this romantic comedy, though the original is better.

This perfectly serviceable remake of the 1977 picture raises the question as do so many remakes, of why this was remade. The scene is changed from the Upper West Side to West Greenwich village, but other than that, it looks like the leads worked on their characterizations by looking at the earlier film -- and the originals do it ever so slightly better.

This remake just does not live up the the original. No chemistry between the leads, and I can't remember the last time I've seen cleavage (obviously silicone) that was too high on the female leads chest. And she wasn't even a pleasure to look at. The male lead, what's his name, seemed invisible to me in the role.

Do yourself a great favor and rent the original instead.

It was a made for TV movie, for goodness sake. If I were home alone on a Saturday night, I would really enjoy this movie--what is wrong with a movie simply being entertaining? I haven't seen the original, so maybe that is why you all hate it so much, but as for simple acting jobs, I thought that the little girl has actually really improved her acting skills and was nice and natural, with good comic timing. And Daniels was quite charming. I wasn't as crazy about P.Heaton as I normally am, but I think that that was a product of the way her character was written. And I was glad to see Alan Cumming do something light, too. Anyway, in general, it was enjoyable, and I would recommend it for a no fuss night.

Here is another example of a movie/show that was perfect or near perfect in its original incarnation, and low and behold, some unoriginal "genius" has to come up with the brilliant idea to ruin it. It's funny, my wife and I just watched the video of the original 2 weeks ago, before we knew this was coming out. It was my wife's first time seeing the movie, and she loved it. 10 minutes into this lifeless remake, and we knew it was a mistake.

First of all, you can NOT build upon or act against Richard Dreyfuss' original performance. Dreyfuss' Garfield was as near perfect a characterization as one could find. he was perfect and masterful. Daniels, while a fine actor, does not hold a candle in this role. The rest of the cast too appears to be sleep-walking through the lines. I'm sorry but, it just doesn't work. Patricia Heaton is obviously talented, and I love her on "Raymond" but she is out of her element here and it does not work. Hailey Eisenberg was cute to a point in the Pepsi commercials, but judging by her performance here, she shoulda hung 'em up afterwards. Blame can probably be placed justly on the directing, which is equally lifeless, and appears to not be capable of capturing the magic of the original.

The only saving grace is, it's on TV, so it's free. Watch if nothing else is on, but otherwise, forget it.