Purely Joyful Movie!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Thoroughly charming! Jill Clayburgh masterfully plays another savvy, divorced woman attempting to date again, and though some viewers may say she has mined this territory before, Clayburgh absolutely nails the love/hate relationship fifty-somethings have with getting back into the swing of things (sometimes it's much more enticing to just sit home and mope). After a blind date goes south, Jill unintentionally winds up in a gay bar with her girlfriends and they decide to make a night of it; luckily, exterminator/part-time jazz musician Jeffrey Tambor has also wandered in and the two singles 'meet cute' (he tells her he's open to "experimenting" and thinks she's a transsexual, she finds the situation amusing). Writer-director Eric Schaeffer loves a good cliché, and he doesn't mind playing up the storybook aspects of this wacky romance, however the film does fall into a predictable pattern (they meet, they fall in love, they fight, etc.). Still, when the writing is this delicious, and the cast is so attuned to the straightforward, occasionally barbed material, the results can be joyous. While Clayburgh mixes her playful, feisty bit with a more serious, defensive undercurrent (and succeeds beautifully), Jeffrey Tambor is the revelation here. Too often cast in sitcoms as a dunderhead or buffoon, Tambor displays wonderfully dry comic timing--and the embittered quality of his character is never off-putting (we can sympathize). Tambor seems to have no notion of what a handsome lug he is, and his aw-shucks shuffling and nervous body language is that much more appealing because of it. He's thoughtful and deep (and troubled), but also an old-fashioned romantic at heart, and Clayburgh's salty, sneaky wit brings out the best in him (he's dry, she's wry). Despite some comically 'shocking' scenes, the film isn't about sexual humiliation (thank God), and Schaeffer wants these two to be together as much as we do. It's a hip, sassy affair that should resonate with a lot of folks over forty. *** from ****

After watching this film, and I did watch it to the end, I immediately figured out its origins. The writer/director glommed onto the title, Never Again, then decided what a great movie title that would be and wrote (I use the word loosely) a movie around the title, using obvious setups. The opening scenes strain credulity for their "meeting cute" -- what normal straight guy decides he may be gay because he can't commit. Remember, I said normal. The leads are the mandatory emotionally damaged 54-year-old male and female. They bare their souls, and vow "never again" will they put themselves through the horror of falling in love but, oh, by the way, sex is permitted. She immediately has a "delayed" orgasm (only that piece of fiction could be written by a clueless male fixated on a fantasy that doesn't exist in real life), after which they suddenly decide they are in love and oh, by the way, it is six months later all of a sudden because it has been established for the sake of the story that he is so neurotic that he can't remain in a relationship longer than, what is it? oh yeah, nine months. Not three months, not 14 months, but nine months. (But that was with women half his age or less, so what's up with that?) So naturally, he leaves because he looked at his watch and by golly, it's been nine months. Then he gets run over by a horse, almost dies. She puts on a costume that brings him out of a coma and all live happily ever after, or so you are supposed to think.The script, direction, and production values are to laugh at. The acting is good, as has been mentioned in other comments, but it must have taken heroic efforts on the parts of the cast to deliver with this lame material.

While on some levels it was very nice to see this genre take an older audience and characters as opposed to twenty-somethings, I think it was a little too much gush and not enough substantial script. It was amusing to hear a 54 year-old woman talk graphically about sex and get in amusing situations that are normally reserved for "American Pie" types, but it was too sappy and WAY too over-the top. In one scene, they are discovered by her college age daughter as they are in the middle of coupling. In another, she is trying on a "device" when Christopher and his mother come over to visit. I do not fit into what I imagine is the target audience in age. I did, however, go with some people who were: They liked it even less than me. While sweet and comedic. I would not recommend this movie to anyone. Sorry, try again. Wait. Never try... Never try again...

A romantic farce with complications. The movie loves its over-50 characters yet presents them behaving ridiculously in outrageous situations.Core to "Never Again" is the perspective and experience of liberated, divorced, over-50 women with sexual relationships. These are presumed and exemplified without being examined. Under 25 women, even the heroine's daughter, show themselves to be inert, callow dolts. Their parents live vivid lives with humor and pain, joy and despair, wit and incredulity, dignity and abnegation. So the generational roles are reversed from the usual teenage romantic comedy; that will keep a lot of viewers away. Additionally, the movie frankly talks and pictures frank abundant and diverse sex, which will keep a lot of over-25 women away.The movie's topic, two individuals in a romantic relationship, interests woman most, but structurally the movie is presented as symmetrical among the genders, with an early alternation between the lives and concerns of its male and female leads. Further, both have friends who are core to the movie: the other half of a jazz duet in the case of Christopher and two close gabbies for Grace. In the end, though, "women do more of everything," as Christopher's buddy says, and our hero confesses to Grace that "you were right about everything," so we are back to women-centric starting place.Curiously, the words do not match the deeds portrayed. While Grace complains (and we are supposed to agree) that Christopher has a standard Madonna/whore complex about women, nothing of the sort is pictured. Rather, the relationship starts in sex, and he comes to love and appreciate her fully through what is revealed in sex and develops as part of sex. Again, while Christopher supposedly fears intimacy, no fear is actually shown -- he relishes intimacy and honesty (and has a male friendship exemplifying these) and the under 25 women bore him because they offer neither. Instead, threats to the relationship come from the constraints of social context -- the daughter, the friends, and the social demands to be insincere and superficial. When these press in, Christopher starts having second thoughts.Claybaugh is outstanding -- I haven't laughed so hard in years as I did at her strap-on scene. What would the part look like performed with less skill and charm? Unpleasant, perhaps. Grace carelessly injures her daughter, her friends, and her boyfriend whenever things don't go exactly her way. The farce, the happy ending, the acting, and the perspective all move attention away from the heroine's actual problems. She is brave, inventive and winsome, and we over-50 males are happy to fall in love with her.