Mjeteconer Just perfect...

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

calvinnme Albert Brooks starred and also co-wrote the script with Monica McGowan Johnson. He plays Robert, a Hollywood film editor, who is in a roller-coaster of a relationship with Mary, a bank executive. The film pretty much drops in on one go-round of what is clearly there standard cycle of breaking up and falling madly in love again.It's quite a good film. Brooks is on the likable side of neurotic, and Kathryn Harrold as Mary is quite charming. James L. Brooks plays the director of the film that Robert is editing (He later cast Albert Brooks in Broadcast News.), and Bruno Kirby plays Robert's co-worker, Jay.The film is full of memorable scenes, including a bit of an extended sequence with Robert at home after he takes Quaalude's that is pure gold and quite a bit more underplayed than the Quaalude scene in Scorcese's The Wolf of Wall Street.It was interesting to watch this film in the context of the way films and television tackle relationships today - it feels a bit of a precursor to modern relationship comedies. The humor can be subtle and sometimes requires patience but it can really pay off. It's a well-paced film, too. I heard somewhere that - of all people - Stanley Kubrick was a big fan of the film! I guess the one thing that really stood out for me is that these two people really had nothing in common. Why would Mary want a guy who seems sweet but is really just obsessing about her? Once he gets that white picket fence and her behind it, to what will his obsessions turn?

mark.waltz The Broadway musical, "Aspects of Love", proclaimed "Love Changes Everything", explaining that it makes fools of everyone, and boy, was that dong right. Without music, Albert Brooks does exactly that, having a midlife crisis when he breaks up with girlfriend Kathryn Harrold, then do desperately trying to get her back, expressing jealousy, screwing up at work, pursuing other romantic conquests he immediately regrets, then changing everything when he gets her back. The genius in Brooks' films is that he is able to express the quirky and embarrassing sides of our life we couldn't write about if our final grade depended on it. He's like the L.A. version of Woody Allen, changing the trite style of dialog to real world conversation that almost makes the viewer feel that they are intruding in on private conversation.I should mention that one sequence where Brooks goes into an athletic store to buy sneakers was repeated, practically in its entirety, in an episode of "The Golden Girls". A very funny sequence has Brooks trying to end a conversation with his mother and her attempt (unseen) to keep it going even though its obvious that he doesn't want to continue on the particular subject.Cameos by George Kennedy and Meadowlark Lemon add to Brooks' career as a film editor, with Bruce Kirby as his assistant. Not all of the script covers the main plot, but it works, especially in detailing the life of a busy film editor. This is what is called a comedy of intellect, not meant for huge laughs, but providing bits of "I relate to that" smiles.

Mr-Fusion Man, Albert Brooks is a trip in this movie. He's like the template for George Costanza, pushing his usual neurotic persona to the point of comically unlikable. It's not enough that he has to dog his ex until they get back together, but when she actually relents, he goes into paranoia overload. He's that kind of boyfriend who just won't leave well enough alone. It's almost painful but this is right in the man's wheelhouse, so he makes it funny. And you've gotta feel bad for Kathryn Harrold for putting up with all of this. Also of note here is a put-upon Bruno Kirby and "Super Dave" Osborn as a hustling sporting goods salesman.As awful as Brooks' character is, the movie remains compulsively watchable. 8/10

malvernp Having read the other comments on this film, I would like to share my own view that this is one tough movie to see unless you are a total Brooksophile. I am not.When looked at by a purely objective observer, the film is an unbalanced narrative that presents us with more undistilled neuroses than are capable of being absorbed in one sitting. It is quite difficult to watch. The Brooks character (Robert Cole) is so unsympathetic and unpleasant that it is hard to relate to him---let alone root for him as he stumbles from one dysfunctional self-absorbed situation to the next. And he should NEVER do a topless scene and expect to be taken seriously in a romantic context. No man could have that much exposed foliage and be supposed to turn on a babe like Kathryn Harrold----unless, of course, he is Albert Brooks in an Albert Brooks-controlled production."Modern Romance" has its amusing moments-----but they are fragmentary and infrequent. More often than not, I felt as if I were on a confined journey with a thoroughly dislikable person and wishing that it would end already. It confirms the problems that can develop when too much control of a film is placed in only one person---someone who lacks the self-discipline to be able to step back from it and see what is clearly happening.As most people probably know, James L. Brooks, who played the director in this film, is in fact what he portrayed. Six years later, he cast Albert Brooks in the very successful "Broadcast News." James showed us how Albert can shape a credible and entertaining comic performance. Albert allowed us to see James (generally not cast as an actor) do a rare comic turn in a surprisingly effective manner.Fans of "Modern Romance" will by now have moved on to the next laudatory comment about it. To you I say-----there is enough pain in the world without having to find it in a film intended as an entertainment.