Review of The Lonely Guy (1984) by Josh S — 09 Apr 2010

Not quite The Jerk, but still pretty funny. Lowbrow humor with some biting wit added into it. Steve Martin is his normal self. This is just a cheap film made in the early 80s cashing in on Martin's success. Of course, being that this film was in high competition with Ghostbusters probably didn't help.

Larry is a lonely guy. He was just dumped by his hot girlfriend and experiences the life of solitude henceforth. He gets desperate in trying to find that woman who will fulfill his dreams. He thinks he finds this in Iris, but their troubled relationship has its share of ups and downs.

The plot is typical, the twist involving the idea that there is some kind of bizarre lonely man community buying ferns, having fake parties, shouting after lost loves from rooftops and ... organizing simultaneous suicides (yes, the film goes this far as to turn suicide into a joke). There are quite a few politically incorrect situations that give this film an edge that was not seen very often in the 1980s. The overlooked aspect of this film is what a shame. Steve Martin and Charles Grodin playing two mopy guys who just keep getting dealt bad hands in life is very hysterical at times. The plot just solves itself at every turn and is not overly deep or meaningful, it is just an 80s romantic comedy that keeps more in tune with the comedy aspect and reserves romance secondly.

Certain scenes could have made this film iconic, especially for 80s comedic cinema, namely the "orgasm" scene (which is so silly and absurd it was riotous). Worth watching if you are a Steve Martin fan and want to see one of his lesser known films.