Script Review – “Year of the Comet” by William Goldman

In his memoirs Goldman tries to blame the failure of this film on the fact its about red wine and today’s kids don’t really care about red wine. It’s an ingenious way of masking the script’s real problems, most notably a lack of decent jokes and a really silly ending involving the effects of an aging formula. The film also suffered from undercasting – I think with Robert Redford and Glenda Jackson in the leads in the 70s (as Joe Levine originally wanted) it would have been enjoyable breezy fun, even with the silly ending. But Timothy Daly and Penelope Ann Miller lacked the charisma to make this work. Romantic comedy-thrillers need stars. They rolled the dice on Daly and Miller and it didn’t work out.