So much average

Nice effects though.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

I really like a lot about this movie, mainly Burt Reynolds playing against type. Instead of his Alpha male ladies man, we get a lonely, hurt, confused writer/teacher who's just been dumped by his wife Jessica (Candace Bergen). Escaping from New York City glitter, Peter (Burt) moves to Boston and after a failed attempt to enter the dating cycle again, connects with Marilyn (Jill Clayburgh) a neurotic preschool teacher.***SPOILER ALERT****The relationship is rushed and on shaky ground from the onset and we wonder how these two can overcome their own set of insecurities and become a couple. Phil's main roadblock to opening up to Marilyn is that he still loves his ex wife.Candace (Jessica) causes several rifts between Phil and Marilyn. The first being an out of the blue Thanksgiving phone call, the second by showing up on the day Marilyn is moving in with Phil. What follows in short order is a breakup...a failed make up of Phil and Jessica...then a reconciliation with Marilyn.And that's my first of a few issues with the film. Rom Coms seem to suspend belief. Marilyn tells Peter she doesn't want to hear from him again (because she doesn't want to be the Rebound Lady). Phil breaks the rule...and she relents.More importantly...cinematographer Sven Nykvist did a horrible job, this is where the murky comes in. We know it's Winter in the Northeast but all of the interiors are dark...even the bedroom display at Bloomingdales is dark. Hard to get involved in characters who we can't see. It's supposed to be a comedy, so lighten up; literally. As a result, the whole film takes on a more serious tone.Plus, at times screenwriter James L. Brooks seems to tease us with a few quirky moments..like Marilyn's involvement with basketball player John (Sturgis Warner) because he's 'big'. Also...continuity is an issue. I wasn't sure if this took place over one winter or two. Plus, last time I checked...there isn't six weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.One highlight...the divorced men's encounter group meetings. They precede the women's group and we get to peek in on a bunch of lonely, displaced males. The staircase scene as the aggressive women march down the basement steps to start their meeting and the departing males plaster themselves to the staircase walls are great moments.On the whole, there are fun moments and nice ones too. Not meant to be a laugh riot, just a commentary on two people with 'issues'...trying to move on and cope.

"All the President's Men" director Alan J. Pakula stepped out of his comfort zone so to speak to helm this lightweight 'divorce' romance comedy with Burt Reynolds, Jill Clayburgh, Candice Bergen, Charles Durning, and Frances Sternhagen. Previously, the closest that Pakula came to "Starting Over" was "The Sterile Cukoo" (1969) and "Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing" (1973). Usually, Pakula specialized in dark-themed conspiracy thrillers, such "Klute" and "The Parallax View," or melodramas like "Comes A Horseman," "Rollover," and "Presumed Innocent." Not only was Pakula venturing out of his usual zone, but also Burt Reynolds definitely stepped out of his comfort zone, too. Reynolds made "Starting Over" between his "Smokey and the Bandit" movies and "Hooper." Although both Clayburgh and Bergin received Oscar nominations respective for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, Reynolds didn't get a Best Actor nod for what is essentially one of his more winning as well as offbeat performances. He did receive a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture Actor in Musical/Comedy for his performance in "Starting Over." Indeed, Reynolds is more subdued than you can ever imagine this action hero being. He slows down his cadence and displays a vulnerability that was never apart of his action hero roles. Reynolds' wardrobe reflects this change-of-pace casting. He dons sweater vests to wear with his sports jackets and trench coat. Reynolds plays Phil Potter. His wife Jessica (Candice Bergen of "Bite the Bullet") has slept with his boss and she gives Burt the boot. Phil is heart-broken that his wife is kicking him out. He didn't want to part company with her, but she has a popular tune hit and is able to go out on her own. You know that you're watching a comedy because Bergen's character has no vocal talent and sounds distressingly off-key. Here is a sample of the lyrics of her song: "I'm sure I've cried more tears than you-ooh-ooh, but I've gotta be more than a shadow of my mannnnnnnn-nuh." A dejected Phil starts over with the help of his older brother Michael (Mickey) Potter (Charles Durning of "The Choirboys") and his wife Marva (Frances Sternhagen of "Outland") and they set him up with a variety of women. When he isn't dating, Phil participates in a divorced men's workshop in the basement of a church. These scenes are amusing in themselves because the women constantly antagonize the men into leaving early. Meantime, the winner of all the women that Phil sees is a school teacher, Marilyn (Jill Clayburgh of "An Unmarried Woman"), but they endure a rocky romance, principally because Phil hasn't gotten over his ex-wife. Incredibly enough, just as Phil is adjusting to his new life and getting along with Marilyn, Jessica shows up to collapse that house of cards between Marilyn and Phil. When Phil tries to reunite with Jessica, Marilyn asks him to swear on his brother's life that he won't bother her again. Of course, this is not to be and Phil and Jessica cannot rekindle the glow that once warmed their romance. "Starting Over" is just a change of pace for both Pakula and Reynolds that you could almost ignore it, were it not for scenarist James L. Brooks' adaptation of Dan Wakefield's novel. Interestingly, Reynolds had appeared earlier in another lightweight football comedy that was derived from Wakefield's novel "Semi-Tough." It is refreshing to see Reynolds play a role that doesn't require him to pack a pistol or perform dangerous automobile stunts. Actually, he does run a small car off a road onto a snowy embankment where he crashes into a tree, but it isn't a life-or-death stunt. The funniest scene occurs when Phil and Marilyn are shopping at Bloomingdale's for a sofa and Phil experiences a panic attack. Eventually, Micky comes to his rescue and convinces Phil that he was just hyperventilating. Mickey asks the spectators if any of them have a Valium and everybody tries to fork over the medication. If you want to see Burt Reynolds stretch himself as an actor and watching an entertaining comedy, "Starting Over" is a good start.

Burt Reynolds is single again, after breaking up with Candace Bergen, and good friends Charles Durning and Frances Sternhagen set him up with Jill Clayburgh. That's how it all starts. What seems like a standard comedy-drama is buoyed by the stars' charm and outstanding performances, especially Clayburgh and Bergen. (They were incidentally both nominated for their work in this.) And, Burt has never been better. As one reviewer has said, this has to be Burt's best work. It's great to see Candace before "Murphy Brown" giving her all in a memorable role and singing her heart out. If you happen to see this on TV, do yourself a favor and discover the best the 1970s had to offer.

Just coming off producing and writing the classic sitcoms, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Taxi", James L. Brooks wrote the screenplay, his first, for this 1979 divorce comedy. Even after all these years and finally out on DVD, it remains funny, perceptive and thoroughly engaging in a way that later crystallized into Brooks' film-making trademark in "Terms of Endearment" and "As Good As It Gets". Fortunately, the director is the accomplished Alan J. Pakula, who shows a flair for romantic comedy coaxing excellent performances from the three stars.The plot centers on Phil Potter, a magazine writer-turned-writing teacher who has been informed by his beautiful but flaky wife Jessica that she wants a divorce. Without much recourse, he seeks solace from his bear-hugging psychiatrist brother Mickey and sister-in-law Marva, who eventually set him up on a blind date with Marilyn, a mild-mannered, rather dowdy nursery schoolteacher. The movie then becomes a clever seesaw of Phil vacillating between his wife and potential new love interest. What remains fresh about the movie is how Pakula and Brooks keep the focus on the flawed characters and less on the predictable clichés about the awkward consequences of divorce.Even taking into account his comeback turn in Paul Thomas Anderson's 1997 "Boogie Nights", I doubt if Burt Reynolds has given a more subtle, genuinely humane performance than he does here. Cast completely against type (he was in his Smokey/Hooper/Sharkey action phase at the time), he makes Phil's uncertainty feel real - even at the risk of losing audience sympathy in the way he treats Marilyn no matter how inadvertently. In the afterglow of her brilliant work in Paul Mazursky's "An Unmarried Woman", Jill Clayburgh again demonstrates the malleable quality and fierce intelligence to make her deglamorized Marilyn an attractive and credibly cautious woman. In a revelation before her long, successful run as "Murphy Brown", a deadpan Candice Bergen breaks free from her heretofore vacuously decorative roles and supplies the movie's biggest laughs as the narcissistic Jessica, especially when she sings with uproariously tone-deaf panache to seduce Phil in her hotel room.There is also a terrific supporting cast - Charles Durning bringing out all the unctuous support that Mickey can muster; a scene-stealing Frances Sternhagen as Marva, more than anxious to provide Phil emotional support when he is down and out; Austin Pendleton as a needy member of Phil's divorced men's club, who keeps remarrying his ex-wife; and Mary Kay Place in a funny cameo as Phil's aggressive first post-marital date. Other than Marilyn's unflattering outfits (the orange down jacket is hideous), Marvin Hamlisch's seventies-lite pop music is really the only significant element that dates the movie severely. The divorced men's club meeting scenes are hilarious, and you can see Jay O. Sanders and Wallace Shawn as fellow members. Unlike other romantic comedies of the period full of I'm-OK-You're-OK pop psychology, this one is still well worth viewing.