Script review – “Broadcast News” by James Brooks (1987) ****

That rarest of beasts – a realistic rom com. Brooks spend a lot of time researching and writing his script but the end result was worth it – three terrific characters, a logical story, a realistic ending. You could make the film today – maybe you’d have to update the tv stuff a little but the emotion hasn’t dated a jot. Having seen the film you can envision the actors who played it in the film – Holly Hunter, William Hurt and especially Albert Brooks. I loved the Hunter-Brooks relationship and the way the Hurt character isn’t demonised. Wonderful, bittersweet stuff. Guys like Tom (Hurt) simply don’t marry Jane’s (Hunter) nor do guys like Alan (Brooks); Toms marry people like Lila, nerds like Alan do tend to fine a nice wife with whom they squabble, and Janes become perennially single.