Negligible Leads

 ROMANTIC COMEDY (1983)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

There is nothing more stale in Hollywood cinema than seeing the same old story told the same old way. Worse yet is casting two bright personalities on screen who do so little to bring it any new life. "Romantic Comedy" is as stale and generic as its title and its worst sin is casting two excellent actors as negligible romantic leads. 

So let's see Dudley Moore is Jason, a renown Broadway playwright who is about to get married to Allison (Janet Eilber, who just looks bored stiff). Jason is not the monogamist type since he has had some affairs. Mary Steenburgen is another playwright, Phoebe, who is about co-write a play with Moore. She arrives at his house, unaware he is about to get married on the day of her arrival. Everything falls apart from the start because nothing especially funny or romantic happens in the early scenes. Steenburgen looks out of place and Moore is somewhat incorrigible and arrogant. When Steenburgen steps inside his office without an invitation, he acts with an air of indifference. He proceeds to undress before her (no, no sexual proclivity here) but she is more smitten being in the same room with the well-known playwright to notice his birthday suit. Nothing here rings true, and the pacing slackens.

Oh, it only gets worse. These two bicker and fling papers across the room. Then Steenburgen falls in love with a reporter (Ron Liebman, an authentic, piercing New York presence). Moore is not exactly happily married yet falls out of it, especially after his wife is pregnant. And the movie laboriously goes on without a shred of real wit or punch or vitality. I wish I could say something nice about the film. You know a film is in trouble when you can't even remember what role Robyn Douglass played. 

I did not exactly dislike "Romantic Comedy" but I can hardly say it is worth the effort. Based on a play by Bernard Slade that originally starred Anthony Perkins and Mia Farrow, mediocre is written all over the margins of this film. Dudley Moore looks like he would rather be somewhere else. The only real spark is the winning personality of the bright angelic presence of Mary Steenburgen - she lights up the screen. I wish I could say that is enough.