The Goodbye Girl Review

I am not real big on classic movies but there are a few that I remember fondly from childhood.  One such movie is the Goodbye Girl starring Marsha Mayson, Richard Dryfuss, and a young child actress at the time by the name of Quin Cummings.  Richard Dryfuss received an Richard Dryfuss won an Oscar for his role of Elliot Garfield, in the timeless romantic comedy.  The Goodbye Girl also had a hit song come from it appropriately titled the Goodbye Girl.  I am pleased to say that this wonderful movie which came out in 1977 is now available on DVD.

The movie revolves around Paula McFadden (Marsha Mason) is an ex-dancer who lives with her boyfriend an actor named Tony and her 10 year old daughter Lucy (Quinn Cummings). One day after a shopping trip Paula and Lucy come home to their apartment to find a note from Tony, he has decided to leave them, and head out for opportunities beyond. The mental blow on Paula is tremendous as this is not the first time that this has happened to her. Her husband had left her as well in much the same way that Tony did. Both her and Lucy are feeling quite abandoned, and are beginning to feel that this is some kind of pattern for them.

To make things worse Tony's name was the one on the apartment lease where they live. Tony has decided to sub-let the apartment to someone else with very little warning Paula and Lucy are to leave the apartment. Paula refuses to leave the apartment, and she completely stays put until the new tenant comes knocking on the door.

Elliot Garfield (Richard Dreyfus) is an actor arriving to New York from Chicago. He has paid the rent for the apartment for three months and has the lease in hand when he shows up. At first he has trouble with Paula accessing entry to the apartment, but Paula really does not have a legal leg to stand on. Elliot sees that this is a single mother with a child who has no money and no place to live, so he tells Paula that her and her daughter can share the apartment with him.

At first they are at odds with one another and bump heads quite a bit. He is an actor and Paula has learned not to trust actors, she has a personal problem with them after being left by them, with only a note to remember them by.

When Paula finds that she is falling for Elliot she is afraid because she knows that actors always leave her, and her daughter. Elliot is trying to convince her that he won't leave, but Paula can not take that risk again. She is tired of being the Good Bye Girl.

The Goodbye Girl is a very basic movie.  There is not a lot of hype technology or even scenery, most of the shots are done in the apartment that is shared by Elliot, Lucy, and Paula, there are some scenes that take you out of that element, but not much in the way of scenery, suffice it to  say this was probably not an expensive movie to make.  The characters also were not extraordinary people, they are very ordinary people with ordinary feelings, and ordinary lives.  That being said the movie works wonderfully for being a movie that is not extraordinary.  The movie is funny and charming, and all though Paula and Elliot seem an unlikely pair, you can't help but like them together.  This is a romance on a very basic level, but it really works, and the ending is absalutely perfect.  Although this movie came out in 1977 this is a romance that could and would work as a movie filmed today. The problems and lives that Paula and Elliot lived are very much the way many people live today. 

I also have to give kudos to Quinn Cummings who was quite young in the movie, but who played her part beautifully, she was charming, and actually had good timing, she could be funny, but yet you could see her underlying fears.

If you are looking for a romantic comedy that is not extraordiary but still seems to work beautifully you might really enjoy the Good Bye Girl.