Review of The Goodbye Girl (1977) by Paul Z — 07 Jul 2008

The Goodbye Girl has a flawless diamond of a script, a quintessential example of how truly effective writing can be if the writer really puts his heart and soul into the work, and taxes his brain on every word. The dialogue is extremely witty, the story is rocking with realism, the characterizations are boldly clear, and it is all played fairly and humanistically for laughs. Neil Simon makes us laugh hysterically at his reflection of a hapless stage in any two people's lives. Even when it comes right down to the smaller elements of the film that would later become aggravating clichés, like the wisecracking young daughter with a mouth much older than she is, every note is hit right.

Richard Dreyfuss brings a wonderful, passionate energy to his Oscar-winning performance, fleshing out his character rivetingly. Here is where Dreyfuss truly brandishes his talent as an actor. His performance is seamless to the point where during the first scene wherein he's being forced by his theater director to play Henry V as a flaming effeminate homosexual, there is the subtlest girly shifting of his feet that can be hardly noticed, but Dreyfuss knows that this sort of thing matters to an effective performance.

Marsha Mason matches him perfectly. Her role is so painfully real and her portrayal is so painfully honest. Her sensitivity and affection to her character, the harshly sympathetic archetype of a struggling middle-aged everywoman, brings you so much closer to her. She is so lovingly, hilariously, wittily, and beautifully true.

This film is one of the finest examples I've recently seen of how all the greatest screenplays and performances were hoarded for two particular and highly potent decades, the 1960s and '70s.