The Lonely Guy (1984)

With a poll coming up on IMDbs Classic Film board for the best titles of 1984 I started to search around in my DVD folders,and I spotted a Steve Martin film which appeared to be really over looked,which led to me getting ready to find out how lonely things could be.The plot:Getting thrown out by his girlfriend Danielle, Larry Hubbard finds himself joining a growing part of society called "The lonely guy" which is men/women who don't have any friend/family/partner and spend all their time completely on their own.Meeting fellow lonely guy Warren Evans,Hubbard starts getting into the lonely guy lifestyle,from buying a plant who he can talk to,to getting cardboard cut-outs of celebrities who he can "invite" round for parties.Whilst Evans accepts his place in society,Hubbard decides that he must try to be the lonely guy who loses his loneliness.View on the film:In the first half of their adaptation of Bruce Jay Friedman's novel The Lonely Guy's Book of Life,writers Neil Simon/Stan Daniels & Ed. Weinberger give the screenplay a witty,fast-pace sketch Comedy outline,with Hubbard learning the lonely guy lifestyle step by step,from pretending to be a food critic in order to eat on his own,to buying "lonely sweat" in the hope of catching the eyes of a lonely girl.Whilst the second half's focus on Hubbard's attempts to get out of the lifestyle does lead to the film slowing down,the writers make sure to keep the laughs rolling with a jet-black Comedy edge,which goes from lonely guys all using the same suicide bridge,to a lonely howl on the rooftops.Given a misty Fantasy backdrop by director Arthur Hiller,Steve Martin gives an excellent performance as Larry Hubbard,with Martin making sure that no matter how left-field Hubbard's antics are,that Hubbard is always grounded with a desire to get rid of his loneliness.Joining Martin, Charles Grodin gives a hilarious performance as Warren Evans,who Grodin shows to be extremely uncomfortable in his own skin,whilst the pretty Judith Ivey gives some sassy charm as Iris,as Hubbard discovers how lonely things can get.

Steve Martin finds himself transported into the world of the Lonely Guy when he finds his wife in bed with another man and she kicks poor old Martin out.Martin makes a new best friend in Charles Grodin, another lonely guy. Grodin teaches Martin about the world New York's lonely guy's and together they each try to find a new love.It's well played by both Martin & Grodin, there are some good gags and very amusing moments in the fist hour of the film. For the last 20 minutes or so it becomes a bit less fun and feels a little bit like it's dragging.I was hoping to see a great comedy performance from Grodin, who I recently discovered via his excellent performance in Taking Care of Business (he was the only good thing about that film) but here his character was very subdued and didn't really have any funny lines. Not his fault, obviously, but feels like a bit of a waste of talent.Decent film over all, which I will enjoy re-watching at some point in the future.

Love this movie! Loved it when I first saw it over 20 years ago and it still holds up today. After all, there have been and always will be "Lonely Guys" that can relate to the movie. Martin and Grodin were great in every scene together. I wish they teamed up in movies more often. They could have given Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor a run for their money! I do have one bad thing to say about the movie. The last third of it sort of went downhill. I still found it funny but the laughs were a little cheaper and not as witty, offbeat and deadpan. The sneezing scene is a case in point. It was just plain stupid and needed to be on the cutting room floor. Unfortunately, I relate to it more now than ever before. My wife left me a year ago and I now sometimes find myself feeling the same way Larry and Warren did. However, I do not see myself buying several cardboard stand-ups of celebrities anytime soon. The ones that actually talk are kinda tempting though! PS - I don't mean to sound queer or nothing', but the theme song is really sweet!

The movie doesn't really have the usual typical sort of comedy you would expect from an '80's Steve Martin movie. It's humor is often more in its little things, or one word that is spoken in its dialog. The movie doesn't build up to its jokes like a normal comedy would do but often things just come out of nowhere. It doesn't make this movie as humor filled as you would perhaps expect but it does make the movie somewhat original and somehow also real pleasant.Too bad that the story is such a weak one. The story doesn't seem to have one clear focus and subplots are not handled well enough. This has as a result that some moments and even characters just don't work out properly for the movie. It makes the movie also really a weak one to watch at times. The love-story just was too weak and not well developed enough. Judith Ivey is also supposed to be in her mid-20's in this movie but instead looks closer to 40, while Steve Martin also works around a bit too much without his shirt on. It are mainly small things such as these that also makes the movie irritating at parts as well as weak, simply since it doesn't work out all as well as obviously intended.This movie could had been a great homage to the lonely guy but instead its story is all over the place, jumping from the one thing to another. It doesn't really give a good or fair portrayal of the average lonely guy, who normally is shy and just not the way Steve Martin portrays it in this movie. Charles Grodin is perhaps way better but he's just only playing second violin in this movie.Still a pleasant enough little movie to watch but just no genre classic, since it has way too many weaknesses, mainly concerning its story.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/