Goodbye, Lover **1/2
rated R starring Patricia Arquette, Dermot Mulroney, Ellen DeGeneres, Mary-Louise Parker, Don Johnson written by Ron Peer, Joel Cohen, & Alec Sokolow directed by Roland Joffe
Before seeing Roland Joffe's black comedy GOODBYE, LOVER, I didn't think I would ever need to say that a film suffers because it doesn't rip off Tarantino enough. But, alas, the unexpected has happen. For the most part, GOODBYE, LOVER's plot is solid all the way through, and the twists are timely and unexpected. But the script does not make for good comedy, and none of the characters are interesting enough to care much about.
GOODBYE, LOVER is the story of real-estate agent Sandra Dunmore(Patricia Arquette), a woman as obsessed with kinky sex as she is with "The Sound of Music". She is cheating on her husband, Jake(Dermot Mulroney), with his brother, Ben(Don Johnson). Then, one night, a drunken Jake calls Ben, telling him that he knows all about the whole ordeal and that he is planning on throwing himself off of a 30-story building. Ben rushes to the building, and while he is trying to help Jake away from the ledge, Sandra comes from behind and pushes him off the building to his death.
Jake and Sandra then tell the police investigator, Sgt. Pompano(Ellen DeGeneres), that Ben fell off while trying to help Jake, and it turns out that what Jake and Sandra are trying to do is collect the money from Ben's will, since Jake is Ben's only living relative...or so they think.
But Ben decided to marry his ditzy co-worker Peggy(Mary-Louise Parker) 3 days before at a secret Las Vegas ceremony. But it's not long before Sandra finds out, and everyone seems to be against everyone else. Meanwhile, Sgt. Pompano is still trying to piece together the whole ordeal.
GOODBYE, LOVER was supposedly kept on Warner Bros. shelves for quite a while, because the company wasn't sure how to market it. The film doesn't feature any big name stars, and the subject matter is too dark and risky for most viewers.
Director Roland Joffe, who directed the great THE KILLING FIELDS and the not-so-great THE SCARLET LETTER has taken a different route this time around, with a film that is a lot of fun but doesn't provoke a lot of thought. Patricia Arquette is good as always as the vixen, and Ellen DeGenres is, well...Ellen DeGeneres. Walking out of GOODBYE, LOVER, I wasn't sure what to think of it, because the film doesn't leave you with much. The film is not as smart as FARGO or even last year's CLAY PIGEONS, because what it is lacking is a script with the least bit of comedic bite. The screenplay, by Ron Peer, Joel Cohen(don't worry, it's definitely not Joel Coen), and Alec Sokolow seems to concerned with the story and it's plot twists that it doesn't take the time to be funny or give us characters we can care about. If GOODBYE, LOVER had been another PULP FICTION rip-off, I probably would've enjoyed it more
a review by Akiva Gottlieb, The Teenage Movie Critic akiva@excite.com http://www.angelfire.com/mo/film watch me on TBS' "Dinner And A Movie" May 21, 8:05pm EST
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