Monday, August 08, 2022

Movie review - "Kiss Me Goodbye" (1982) **

 Attempt at making a Topper/Blithe Spirit type comedy - smart New Yorkers, stars, comic ghosts. Sally Field is the woman whose ex James Caan, a Bob Fosse type choreographer, haunts her old house. Jeff Bridges is the Bill Pullman.

The film is set up to be funny - there are wacky best friends, old dames (Claire Trevor as Field's mother). The cast try - try too hard, no one's funny and they're all trying. Caan even tap dances a bit. He played a few showmen in his day.

The second half of the film is geared far too much to Jeff Bridges when it needed to focus on Fields. It also lacks a subplot - like they are knocking down the house, or Field has a project, or Caan gets Field to do a show or something. Caan in particular looks haplessly passive. And the dialogue isn't funny. I kept wishing Neil Simon had done a polish on this.

Directed by Robert Mulligan.

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