Starting Over (1979)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

People are voting emotionally.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

I had forgotten how much I used to enjoy Burt Reynolds. No, he was never a GREAT actor, but he was almost always enjoyable on screen. And this is another of his engaging performances. It's a decent story about a man who is dumped by his wife (a quite young Candice Bergen) and has to start over. And after a few stumbles he starts over with Jill Clayburgh, who plays a rather insecure teacher who has trouble developing relationships because she is too in need of permanence early on. And just when they finally do move in together, up shows the old wife! So, of course, the question is, which way will he go...although we all really know the answer. But meanwhile, he makes the poor choices.Just for the record, this is one of Burt's more serious films. It's not a comedy, although there is some humor in it. I think it's more drama.There are some other familiar faces here, including the wonderful Charles Durning, but they don't have much screen time...just along to move the plot.Burt is good here. Not Laurence Olivier, but he's good for the role. So is Jill Clayburgh. I wasn't very impressed with Candice Bergen, which is odd, because usually I don't care that much for Jill Clayburgh...here they flipped.

Released in 1979, "Starting Over" is a romantic dramedy about a recently divorced man, Phil Potter (Burt Reynolds), who tries to get back into dating and finds a new potential mate (Jill Clayburgh) while the ex-wife still hovers (Candice Bergen). Charles Durning and Frances Sternhagen are on hand as the protagonist's brother and sister-in-law.Who knew Burt could do drama? This movie proves it; and the first hour is quite entertaining, as far as romcoms go. Bergen is stunning and it's hard to see Phil settling for Clayburgh's character. In any case, amusing moments abound. Unfortunately, the last 45 minutes morph into a slow-moving bore. It's almost like they hired someone else to write the third act. If it weren't for the dull third act I'd easily give this a grade of "B" or 7/10. Still, this is a must-see if you're a fan of Reynolds (or Bergen, even though her role plays second fiddle to Clayburgh). The film runs 105 minutes and was shot in the Boston area.GRADE: C+

Just coming off producing and writing the classic sitcoms, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Taxi", James L. Brooks wrote the screenplay, his first, for this 1979 divorce comedy. Even after all these years and finally out on DVD, it remains funny, perceptive and thoroughly engaging in a way that later crystallized into Brooks' film-making trademark in "Terms of Endearment" and "As Good As It Gets". Fortunately, the director is the accomplished Alan J. Pakula, who shows a flair for romantic comedy coaxing excellent performances from the three stars.The plot centers on Phil Potter, a magazine writer-turned-writing teacher who has been informed by his beautiful but flaky wife Jessica that she wants a divorce. Without much recourse, he seeks solace from his bear-hugging psychiatrist brother Mickey and sister-in-law Marva, who eventually set him up on a blind date with Marilyn, a mild-mannered, rather dowdy nursery schoolteacher. The movie then becomes a clever seesaw of Phil vacillating between his wife and potential new love interest. What remains fresh about the movie is how Pakula and Brooks keep the focus on the flawed characters and less on the predictable clichés about the awkward consequences of divorce.Even taking into account his comeback turn in Paul Thomas Anderson's 1997 "Boogie Nights", I doubt if Burt Reynolds has given a more subtle, genuinely humane performance than he does here. Cast completely against type (he was in his Smokey/Hooper/Sharkey action phase at the time), he makes Phil's uncertainty feel real - even at the risk of losing audience sympathy in the way he treats Marilyn no matter how inadvertently. In the afterglow of her brilliant work in Paul Mazursky's "An Unmarried Woman", Jill Clayburgh again demonstrates the malleable quality and fierce intelligence to make her deglamorized Marilyn an attractive and credibly cautious woman. In a revelation before her long, successful run as "Murphy Brown", a deadpan Candice Bergen breaks free from her heretofore vacuously decorative roles and supplies the movie's biggest laughs as the narcissistic Jessica, especially when she sings with uproariously tone-deaf panache to seduce Phil in her hotel room.There is also a terrific supporting cast - Charles Durning bringing out all the unctuous support that Mickey can muster; a scene-stealing Frances Sternhagen as Marva, more than anxious to provide Phil emotional support when he is down and out; Austin Pendleton as a needy member of Phil's divorced men's club, who keeps remarrying his ex-wife; and Mary Kay Place in a funny cameo as Phil's aggressive first post-marital date. Other than Marilyn's unflattering outfits (the orange down jacket is hideous), Marvin Hamlisch's seventies-lite pop music is really the only significant element that dates the movie severely. The divorced men's club meeting scenes are hilarious, and you can see Jay O. Sanders and Wallace Shawn as fellow members. Unlike other romantic comedies of the period full of I'm-OK-You're-OK pop psychology, this one is still well worth viewing.

This is a totally charming and mature romantic comedy unlike anything Hollywood puts out today. It has aged amazingly well and delivers big laughs, soft chuckles, and a few deep sighs. This time, I especially enjoyed when Burt Reynolds, as Phil Potter, shows up at Jill Clayburgh's (Marilyn) and she is having a candlelit dinner for one. The scenes of the divorced men's group are wonderful, as many have already noted. And Candice Bergen was truly funny. If you see this one listed in your TV Guide, make a date with it.