User reviews

I have never understood the need for remakes period. But when you remake a movie isn't the idea to try to improve upon it? What's the point of remaking a movie when you virtually do it word for word as is the case with "The Goodbye Girl"? The original is a wonderful comedy/romance with terrific performances by all three leads. But watching this remake serves only to remind you how good the original is and how little is being brought to this film.

Jeff Daniels and Patricia Heaton are good actors misplaced here. Daniels is totally wrong here. He has none of the charming cockiness that Richard Dreyfuss had. Heaton is far too abrasive and too attractive for the part. Every time we see her in a low cut nightgown we wonder why Daniels doesn't throw caution to the wind and go for it earlier. And Hallie Eisenberg is just terrible as the daughter. Quinn Cummings was so great in the original that maybe no one could top it.

The story is exactly the same. Even the odd subplot with our hero doing an off Broadway show as a gay Richard III, which was dumb and out of place in the original, is even worse here. Director Richard Benjamin does what he can (including giving himself a cameo where he is surprisingly wooden) but the miscasting takes away what charm there is in the script.

Finally, why remake a good movie? Remake a bad one and make it better. Stay away from the good ones. These remakes can only tarnish the memory of the original.

The Goodbye girl was a bad movie. Patricia Heaton should stick to making Acme commercials, and Jeff Danniels should stick to what he is best at; making a fool out of him self in front of a camera with Jim Carrey. When Patricia Heaton's character, Paula cried i thought it looked looks completely unbelievable. Although I thought Jeff Danniels played his part well, i think if you want to see Jeff Danniels at his best, RENT DUMB AND DUMBER!!!!!!!!! He was able to portray his emotions to the audience, and showed what it is like to be an actor in New York City. Personally, I think that because the script was almost identical to that of original movie, that in this version some of the slang and actions of the character seemed outdated. If you are looking for a movie with originality or good acting this is not the movie for you.

The 2004 remake of the 1977 version of the goodbye girl was in the least to say awful. Beside from the fact that the actors did not fit the roles very well, everything else was exactly the same. The camera angles along with the words spoken by the characters. It was like the people who decided to redo the movie didn't have enough brains to spice it up a little bit. The character of Paula got annoying as she cried through practically the whole movie. There were some funny moments in the movie and the fact that Jeff Daniels spoke much slower and clearly than Richard Dreyfus. The movie was in the least to say not very good and I would not recommend it to serious movie fans. I give this movie two out of five stars.