Review of Defending Your Life (1991) by Grace A — 18 Nov 2007

This is one of the funniest and wisest movies I have ever seen. Albert Brooks plays an "every man" whose visit to the "way station" of the after life is much like the life he left. He doesn't rate the jacuzzi and the chocolates on the pillow.

In his previous life, he was an advertising man who was taken advantage of by everyone. In the life before that, he was dinner. But he falls in love with a practically perfect woman, a woman he may lose if he doesn't learn to take risks.

The movie is incredibly funny, with its view of Judgment city, where the weather is 70 degrees and perfect, and you eat all you want and never gain weight. But the movie also has profound things to say about living fearlessly.

Albert Brooks' best.