Rom Coms are traditionally looked over when it comes to Oscar season. Traditionally. But that doesn’t mean always. Occasionally one makes it through, usually on the strength of the lead actors who bring something more to the table than is traditionally found in these type of films. Generally that means there is more going on than just the romantic feelings of two people developing over a period of time. For a rom com to be considered Best Picture material it needs to stand out from the myriad of others in the genre and really speak to the audience and not kow-tow to the lowest common denominator. The Goodbye Girl is one of those films that doesn’t underestimate its audience while at the same time remains relatively faithful to the genre tropes.
Prolific playwrite Neil Simon penned the script for The Goodbye Girl, originally titled Bogart Slept Here. The original concept was much darker and involved an actor making it big in Hollywood as the sudden change in his family life causes the marriage to disintegrate. He started out with Marsha Mason in mind for the part of Paula and tooled the character around her strengths as an actress. The two had worked together previously in 1973 in his Broadway play The Good Doctor and shortly afterwards the two married. They stayed married for a decade during which The Goodbye Girl went into production. This would turn out to be another hit for both of them making over $100 million at the box office and earning all three of the main cast members Oscar nominations with Richard Dreyfuss being the youngest man at the time to ever win it in his category.
Paula McFadden (Marsha Mason) is a former dancer living in New York City. She is divorced, raising a young daughter named Lucy (Quinn Cummings), and living with her married boyfriend Tony. Coming home one afternoon she finds a letter from him explaining that he has taken an acting position in Italy and is leaving them to fend for themselves. To make matters worse, unbeknownst to Paula, he has sublet his apartment to Elliot Garfield (Richard Dreyfuss), a neurotic but nice aspiring actor from Chicago who shows up one rainy evening expecting to move in only to find his apartment is already occupied. Paula is in a desperate situation, having nowhere to go with her daughter and no income. With no other choice she comes to terms with Elliot, who has the law on his side, over the apartment. He will share the apartment with her but she will have to find work and pay her part of everything.
Things get off to a rocky start as Elliot has well established habits that include sleeping in the nude, playing his guitar in the middle of the night when he cannot fall asleep, and meditation, complete with chanting and incense, in the mornings. Paula fights back but the reality is that she is only there by his good graces. For his part he is willing to take the smallest room even though he is paying the rent, and takes a shine to the young daughter who finds him more charming than Paula does. Slowly the two adults come to a better understanding of each other, then a reluctant romance blooms. But Paula is secretly afraid that one day an acting job will come along and she and Lucy will be abandoned once again. When a directer offers Elliot a movie role filming in Seattle he cannot turn down the offer and her greatest fears seem all but confirmed.
The film opens up with a real gut punch. We first get to know Paula and Lucy as they are coming home from a shopping trip and talking excitedly about relocating to California. All of this comes crashing down when they enter the apartment and find that Tony is not home. In his place is a letter explaining how he took the cowards way out and left for Italy without even facing them. In an instance Paula’s joy is shattered. This is made all the more painful by having the daughter, ten year old Lucy, read the letter out loud. All we need to know about the characters and their relationship to each other is in those first few minutes. Lucy in particular is shown to be wise beyond her years and not afraid to show her mother that she knows more about life than she should. Paula has allowed herself to be completely reliant on Tony for everything, knowing that there isn’t much she can do to further this relationship with him as long as he is still married. She hasn’t even kept in practice with her dancing, allowing herself to get rusty and out of shape so that when she is forced to put herself out there again she is no longer in the condition needed to make a serious go at it. She put herself in that position and part of her anger and frustration is realizing that.
When she finds out that Tony has sublet their apartment her first response is to try to ignore it as if none of this will ever come back to bite her. When Elliot shows up expecting to take control of the apartment the door is barred and she won’t let him in, insisting instead that he is in the wrong place. She has to know that this will only work for a very short time but she stubbornly refuses to budge until he threatens to litigate the issue, quoting, to her chagrin, directly from A Streetcar Named Desire. She rightfully realizes that she has no legal right to stay there and that if she doesn’t come to an agreement with Elliot her and her daughter will be homeless.
Neil Simon has a way of writing characters that are eccentric and at odds with each other. This is especially apparent in his film The Odd Couple where Oscar and Felix butt heads for two hours. That formula worked so well there that it spun off into a couple of television series and a legacy sequel thirty years later, none of which had the same chemistry as the original film. Neil Simon was great at writing this kind of personality conflict, giving it a realism that can sometimes hit a little too close to home. That is the case here. We sympathize with Paula for the predicament she is in but there is a harsh irrationality to her interactions with Elliot that is also often frustrating to watch. Things that are beyond his sphere of influence become subjects to her anger and acidic tongue like when her purse is snatched outside a liquor store. She takes her anger over that out on him because he cannot chase down the criminals on foot when they are speeding away in a car. There are other instances throughout and they are always making it harder to root for her, especially when compared with just how much patience and understanding he is trying to show her in return.
He’s not perfect, either, though. When he first moves in he shows no consideration for her and her sleeping daughter. He quickly softens up, though, after he gets to know them better. He allows his frustrations to get the better of him with his latest job, an off-off-off Broadway play where he is being asked to play Richard III as flamboyantly gay. When the play bombs and closes after just a few performances he comes home intoxicated and angry, breaking dishes as he stumbles through the apartment. Later in the film he will become overbearing in his romantic pursuit of Paula, pushing himself on her in such a way that would no longer be considered appropriate. It was the 1970’s and sensibilities were different then but that doesn’t excuse just how aggressive he gets.
The final act redeems both characters, though, as Elliot gets offered a movie role in Seattle. Paula, and especially Lucy, see this as Tony all over again and it tears at her heart after she had finally opened up to a man again. Lucy tearfully tells her mom “at least we didn’t get a letter this time.” Paula is so certain that he will not be back that she closes up and won’t listen when he insists he is coming back. I was reminded of the final scene in Pretty Womanwhen Richard Gere comes riding up in a limo and calls up to Julia Roberts from her upper floor window. In The Goodbye Girl Richard Dreyfuss calls her up from the same rainy payphone outside her window that he used the first day they met. He’s left his guitar in their room, a symbol of his dedication to returning to her. The moment of pure joy as she holds his guitar to herself outside the window was used heavily in the trailer for good reason. She’s symbolically holding him to her. There may be moments throughout the film where she is borderline unlikable but in this final moment she will win you over.
The Goodbye Girl hits just the right notes to be a realistic portrayal of two very different people overcoming their first impressions and falling in love with each other. Even better, when the credits role there isn’t the sense that their relationship is doomed to a quick burnout like in so many Doris Day/Rock Hudson type romances. They may not end up rolling in cash with a successful movie career in their future but whatever that future has for them it feels like they will face it together. I’m usually a cynic when it comes to romantic pictures but this one wins me over. I liked it so much I have no interest whatsoever in seeing the remake that released in 2004. It apparently uses the same screenplay which makes it completely unnecessary. You shouldn’t try to improve or update this. It’s great as is and should be left alone. For me, this one is the gold standard for rom coms.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Ray Stark
Best Actor: Richard Dreyfuss (won)
Best Actress: Marsha Mason
Best Supporting Actress: Quinn Cummings
Best Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen Based on Factual Material or on Story Material Not Previously Published or Produced: Neil Simon
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Release Date: November 30, 1977
Running Time: 110 Minutes
Rated PG
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason and Quinn Cummings
Directed By: Herbert Ross
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