Modern Romance Review
By Christopher Null
Brooks, as usual, plays a riff on himself, with Kathryn Harrold (perhaps best known as Jenny Loud on MacGruder and Loud) as the apple of his eye. Brooks is up to his usual shenanigans here -- wondering whether Harrold is cheating on him, obsessing over every little detail, slamming Quaaludes, and wondering whether he shouldn't have dumped the girl after all. Eventually they'll come back together, only to be torn apart before the end. The question is whether we'll reach an equilibrium here where both parties are happy,
Alas, that's not really in the cards, and Modern Romance has its best moments when it has nothing to do with the Brooks-Harrold story, but rather when Bruno Kirby -- as Brooks's best friend -- is on screen. Another highlight is the film that Brooks and Kirby are editing, an absurd, cheesy sci-fi romp starring George Kennedy. It's got nothing whatsoever to do with the main storyline, which makes the repetition and relative tameness of the primary plot seem all the more obvious.
Facts and Figures
Year: 1981
Run time: 93 mins
In Theaters: Friday 13th March 1981
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Entertainment
Production compaines: Columbia Pictures Corporation
Reviews
Contactmusic.com: 3 / 5
Rotten Tomatoes: 85%
Fresh: 17 Rotten: 3
IMDB: 7.0 / 10
Cast & Crew
Director: Albert Brooks
Producer: Andrew Scheinman, Martin Shafer
Screenwriter: Albert Brooks, Monica Mcgowan Johnson
Starring: Albert Brooks as Robert Cole, Kathryn Harrold as Mary Harvard, Bruno Kirby as Jay, Tyann Means as Waitress, Jane Hallaren as Ellen
Also starring: Andrew Scheinman, Monica Mcgowan Johnson