7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A divorced woman and her precocious daughter are forced to share their New York apartment with an aspiring actor who has just arrived in town for his big break.
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason (I), Quinn Cummings, Paul Benedict, Barbara RhoadesRomance | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
The 1970s are often cited as a golden age of cinematic innovation, but not everyone wanted to try
something new. Playwright Neil Simon kept plugging away at the trade he learned writing for
TV, crafting comedies rooted in character and structured in the traditional style of a well-made
play. The Odd Couple (1968) reflects a
template to which Simon returned again and again, establishing a basic premise at the outset—two divorced men of opposite temperaments share an
apartment—with everything else playing out logically from that starting point. In Simon's best
plays, the gun in the first act always goes off in the third, but Simon thoroughly explores the
weapon before it discharges, showing it being cleaned, loaded, cocked and brandished. By the
end of the story, every bullet has been fired, and more often than not they hit their target.
"The Odd Couple" could have been the subtitle of 1977's The Goodbye Girl, one of the best
scripts that Simon wrote for then-wife Marsha Mason. Although Goodbye Girl was written
directly for the screen, it bears the hallmarks of Simon's stage work, with an emphasis on
character and dialogue and a limited number of sets and locations. (Whenever Simon translated
his plays to the screen, he made little effort to "open out" the action.) Originally conceived as the
story of a struggling actor whose sudden success turns his life upside down, Goodbye Girl was
substantially rewritten after an unsuccessful attempt to film it under Mike Nichols' direction with
Robert De Niro in the lead. Simon rewrote the script as a romantic comedy about a feuding
couple who eventually fall in love, but he retained the struggling actor element as a fertile source
of comic routines. Under the guidance of Simon's favorite director, Herb Ross (The Sunshine Boys), the role became a showcase for Richard Dreyfuss, who tore into the part with an
enthusiasm that earned him a shelf of awards, including the Oscar for Best Actor.
The Goodbye Girl shocked everyone by grossing over $100 million (a huge number in 1977) and
achieving the year's fourth highest box office (after Star Wars, Smokey and the
Bandit and Close
Encounters). That year's Best Picture Oscar may have gone to Annie Hall's bittersweet dissection of a failed relationship, but it was Simon's affectionate account of mismatched lovers
that won viewers' hearts. The film has retained a devoted following, who can enjoy it anew in this
superior Blu-ray presentation from the Warner Archive Collection.
The Goodbye Girl was shot by David M. Walsh, who photographed numerous films scripted by Simon, including The Sunshine Boys and Murder by Death. The film was previously transferred in standard definition for DVD; an HD master was created for broadcast some years ago, but upon review it was determined to be inadequate for Blu-ray. Accordingly, the Warner Archive Collection commissioned a new transfer, which was performed (at 2K) by Warner's Motion Picture Imaging facility using a recently manufactured interpositive. Unlike the earlier broadcast master, the new scan received extensive color correction and cleanup, and the resulting 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray sports a smooth and film-like image that reveals a wealth of fine detail in the film's New York locations (and soundstage re-creations of interiors). The lighting and production design capture the city's grungy texture during this economically depressed era, which provides an appropriate background to a story about people who are barely scraping by. The apartment that Paula and Elliot grudgingly share looks suitably worn and cramped, even after Paula redecorates. The palette is generally realistic, with the exception of the ill-fated Shakespeare production, which is awash in stylized lighting (mostly purple). The image retains the soft texture typical of Seventies film stocks, but the grain pattern is natural and finely resolved. As per its usual practice, WAC has mastered The Goodbye Girl at a high average bitrate of 34.99 Mbps.
The Goodbye Girl's mono soundtrack has been transferred from the original magnetic master and encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. The track shows its age in its limited dynamic range, and some of the post-dubbing is less than perfect, but these are limitations of the source. The Blu-ray conveys the dialogue-driven sound mix as accurately as possible, including such key effects as the torrential downpour in which Elliot arrives at the apartment. The understated score is by Dave Grusin, whose lengthy résumé includes another film about a struggling actor, Tootsie, which, ironically, starred Dustin Hoffman, the original inspiration for the character of Elliot.
The sole extra is the film's trailer (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:45), which has been remastered in 1080p. Warner's 2000 DVD of The Goodbye Girl was similarly bare.
The style and locale of The Goodbye Girl may have dated, but its core romance remains as fresh
as when it first appeared, and the theatrical scene it satirizes (and which Simon knew all too well)
remains as unpredictably goofy as ever. WAC has given the film a Blu-ray treatment that should
satisfy existing fans and allow new viewers a chance to discover one of Simon's best. Highly
recommended.
Limited Edition to 3000
1959
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25th Anniversary Edition
1993
1991
Remastered
1937
80th Anniversary Edition
1936
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4K Restoration
1955
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2010
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1988
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1982