The Buddy System
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The Buddy System Review: Although it attempts to update the cranky romance of The Goodbye Girl, which earned Richard Dreyfuss a 1977 Oscar, this comedy can't compete with that film's Neil Simon screenplay or its effortless direction by Herbert Ross. Perennial TV director Glenn Jordan would acquit himself admirably with the feature Mass Appeal a year later, but here his work suffers from a flatly realistic tone and uninspired pacing. Susan Sarandon does little to subvert the clichéd neediness of her single-mom role, while Dreyfuss seems to rest on his laurels. The set pieces that portray his character's wacky inventions -- a talking scale, a brutal alarm clock -- are fun, but they don't provide much in the way of character development. Nancy Allen is pretty dead-on as a new age flake with commitment issues, while Jean Stapleton gets a few laughs as Emily's shrewish mother. Wil Wheaton isn't as annoying as many child actors, but his work lacks the spark of Quinn Cummings in The Goodbye Girl. Perhaps so many comparisons to that film are unfair to the halfway decent Buddy System, but by aping the earlier picture, its producers asked for it. Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide |
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