Main Cast: Albert Brooks, Kathryn Harrold, Bruno Kirby, Jane Hallaren, James L. Brooks
Release Year: 1981
Country: US
Run Time: 93 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Opening well past the point favored by most romantic comedies, director/co-writer/star Albert Brooks' take on the genre begins with a breakup. After exchanging harsh words in a diner, Brooks and Kathryn Harrold go their separate ways. Brooks then spends the next few days attempting to forget his troubles through work, exercise, drugs, and other women, torturing himself at each step. While it's hinted early on that this isn't the couple's first breakup, it eventually becomes clear that the they have cycled through the same events for even longer than expected. Meanwhile, Brooks' character, a film editor assisted by Bruno Kirby, attempts to put the finishing touches on his latest assignment, a none-too-promising space adventure starring George Kennedy and helmed by a details-obsessed director (James L. Brooks). ~ Keith Phipps, All Movie Guide
Review
Challenging the notion that film eroticizes whatever's in its frame, Albert Brooks presents a vision of love as a cycle of torture, abnegation, delusion, and denial. Other than a probable heightening of tensions, Brooks and co-writer Monica Johnson offer no suggestion that events transpiring in Modern Romance differ significantly from its protagonists' past breakups and reunions. Seemingly motivated by the need to fill some cavernous void in himself, Brooks destructively obsesses on Harrold at every stage of their romance. Without her, he's miserably unfulfilled. With her, he's a jealous wreck with no shortage of means to sabotage their relationship, which seems to have no substance apart from the endless cycle of breakups and reconciliation. It's such a telling portrait of love chasing its own tail that it's almost a wonder the film can scare up any laughs. As usual, however, Brooks' talent for inventive gags -- verbal, visual, and otherwise -- pervades the film. Brooks even knows how to run with a questionable idea: One early scene finds him alone in his apartment and deep under the influence of Quaaludes. What starts as a pretty familiar piece of drug humor builds, through a series of long takes, to a brilliant comic set piece that at one point finds Brooks conducting a three-way conversation between himself, his record collection, and his pet bird. ~ Keith Phipps, All Movie Guide
George Kennedy - Himself/Zeron; Bob Einstein - Sporting Goods Salesman; Gene Garvin - Sound effects mixer; Meadowlark Lemon - Himself; Rick Beckner - Zeon; Joe Bratcher - Jim; Candy Castillo - Drugstore Manager; Cliff Einstein - Music Mixer; Virginia Feingold - Bank Receptionist; Albert Henderson - Head Mixer; Dennis Kort - Health Food Salesman; Thelma Leeds - Mother; Karen Mayo-Chandler - Neighbor; Tyann Means - Waitress; Jerry Belson - Jerry; George Sasaki; Hugh Warden - Bank Dick
Credit
Albert Brooks - Director, David Finfer - Editor, Lance Rubin - Composer (Music Score), Ed Richardson - Production Designer, Eric Saarinen - Cinematographer, Andrew Scheinman - Producer, Martin Shafer - Producer, Cliff Einstein - Sound Mixer, Albert Brooks - Screenwriter, Monica Johnson - Screenwriter
