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Beyond Therapy (1987)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:8
Fresh:2
Rotten:6
Average Rating:4.3/10
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: Director Robert Altman ventures into Woody Allen territory with this comic romp about a group of neurotic adults living, dating, and undergoing therapy in New York City. After Prudence (Julie... Director Robert Altman ventures into Woody Allen territory with this comic romp about a group of neurotic adults living, dating, and undergoing therapy in New York City. After Prudence (Julie Hagerty) answers a personal ad placed by Bruce (Jeff Goldblum), the couple meet at a French restaurant to get acquainted, with disastrous results. Prudence doesn't respond well to the news that Bruce is a bisexual currently living with another man, Bob (Christopher Guest) and rushes back to her therapist--and ex-lover--Stuart (Tom Conti) to try to come to terms with this. Meanwhile, two doors down, Bruce is meeting with his therapist Charlotte (Glenda Jackson) who can't seem to pay attention long enough to do any serious counseling. When Bob's overprotective mother Ziai (Genevieve Page) tips off Bob, the romantic foibles spin even further out of control, climaxing at the same French restaurant where Bruce and Prudence first met. Altman, who co-wrote the screenplay with playwright Christopher Durang, author of the original stage play, edits the film at a frenetic pace which mimics the insanity of the characters themselves. The actors, playing bumbling, confused patients and therapists, all deliver strong comic performances, but it is Conti's absurd Stuart that triggers the loudest laughs. [More]
Starring: Julie Hagerty, Jeff Goldblum, Glenda Jackson, Tom Conti
Starring: Julie Hagerty, Jeff Goldblum, Glenda Jackson, Tom Conti
Director: Robert Altman
Director: Robert Altman
Screenwriter: Robert Altman, Christopher Durang
Composer: Gabriel Yared
Producer: Roger Berlind
Reviews for Beyond Therapy
Robert Altman adapted Christopher Durang's play for this peculiar comedy that can't ever seem to find its rhythm.
There's no special logic at work. The performances are good, but the film has been assembled without an overriding sense of humor and style.
He needs more characters to play with than Durang's analyst's couches and restaurant trysts can provide, and simply hasn't the body count to fill in the vacant frames.
It's a movie in which every scene must have seemed like a lot of fun at the time, but, when they're edited together, there's no pattern to the movie, nothing to build toward, no reason for us to care. It's all behavior.
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