What makes it different from others?

Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Excellent, a Must See

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

As the tagline perfectly states, Only the Lonely is "a comedy for anyone who's ever had a mother." In this very charming romantic comedy, John Candy is a bachelor who lives with his overbearing Irish mother, Maureen O'Hara. Catholic and parental guilt prevents him from moving forward with his life, even when he finally meets a girl, Ally Sheedy, he thinks might be "the one".What I love about Only the Lonely is that it's so much more than a comedy. It's absolutely hilarious, but since it's a John Candy movie and he's capable of showing such pain in his eyes, there are some darker moments. The mother-son relationship may be funny, but it's totally relatable and realistic. Maureen is as strong and fiery as she was fifty years earlier in the silver screen, and sometimes her Irish temper gets the better of her. She says some hurtful things to her son, but just before the drama gets too intense, Chris Columbus's script balances out the mood with some humor. What I don't love about Only the Lonely is Ally Sheedy's character. She's not a very nice person, but John is convinced she's "the one". It feels more like she's his last chance, not his best chance, but since he's only supposed to be thirty-eight years old, why would he feel he's reached his last chance? When other characters in the film tell him they think he can do better, I can't help but agree with them.What I absolutely love about Only the Lonely is the sunset romance between Maureen O'Hara and Anthony Quinn. They'd acted together in five movies decades earlier, but were only paired romantically in The Magnificent Matador. It's beyond darling to see them together in their golden years, him as a hopelessly romantic Greek and she as a prim, hard-to-get Irish lass. At that point in their careers, Tony was knee-deep in mobster movies and Maureen had been retired for twenty years. She was lured back to Hollywood by Columbus's script, which he wrote with her in mind, and Tony was given the chance to show audiences he could be gentle. This was the first Anthony Quinn movie I ever saw, so I always think of him as gentle, sweet, and romantic. When he says, "Come to my bed. You'll never want to leave," I don't know how Maureen resists!

It has been twenty years since we lost John Candy, the actor and comedian. In one of his less know roles as Danny Muldoon in Only the Lonely, Candy plays a cop who discovers love in an unassuming funeral home make up artist in Theresa Luna (Ally Sheedy). He wins her heart and all is well until they run into the obstacle of Danny's domineering Irish mother Rose Muldoon (Mauren O'Hara). Everyone warms him to the routine of marriage and his best friend played by Jim Belushi tries to sway him away. All the while Nick Acropolis (Anthony Quinn) is pining for Rose's heart as the nosy next door Greek neighbor. A beautiful story with a message of the challenges of love and living happily ever after. I watched it late night on HBO and was marveled on such a good story. John Candy was such a versatile artist. RIP.

When it was on I wasn't planning to watch it, but I'm glad I stuck with it, because it was a good old fashioned romantic comedy from writer/director Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire). Basically shy cop Danny Muldoon (the lovable John Candy) meets and falls in love with equally bashful mortician Theresa Luna (The Breakfast Club's Ally Sheedy). After many dates, sneaking around behind the back of his mother Rose (Maureen O'Hara), and a little taunting from his brother Patrick (Small Soldiers' Kevin Dunn) and friend Salvatore Buonarte (James Belushi), Danny eventually plucks up the courage to ask Theresa's hand in marriage. His mother of course is not at all supportive and very rude to people, not least of all Theresa, and worse Danny can't stop worrying about her a lot of the time, which Theresa isn't happy with. In the end, Rose wants to move to Florida, but Danny won't go, and after an understanding, she allows him to go and get his fiancée back, and they get back together, a happy ending. Also starring Milo O'Shea as Doyle Ryan, Bert Remsen as Spats Shannon, Last Action Hero's Anthony Quinn as Nick Acropolis, Joe V. Greco as Johnny Luna, Marvin J. McIntyre as Father Strapovic, Macaulay Culkin as Billy Muldoon, Kieran Culkin as Patrick Muldoon Jr., Allen Hamilton as O'Neal, Teri McEvoy as Susan Muldoon and Bernie Landis as Larry. Candy of course is always fun to watch, it may not have had the biggest amount of jokes or slapstick, but it is certainly not one to ignore. Worth watching!

It was a grand and inspired move from writer-director Chris Columbus to bring Maureen O'Hara back to the screen in a modern-day romantic comedy, playing the feisty, hen-pecking mother of an unmarried Chicago cop--but that's where Columbus' good ideas run aground. O'Hara's steely looks and angry outbursts are wonderful, and she's quite comfortable acting alongside John Candy as her son, yet this script is so thin it has to rely on mean-spirited fantasy and dumb, time-worn slapstick and insults to pad its running-time. The Chicago sites and neighborhoods aren't really captured with any flavor (the city never comes to life), and James Belushi just gets in the way as the proverbial best friend. Candy does some nice work, and Ally Sheedy (as Candy's new girlfriend from the local funeral parlor) works hard to give the love story a quirky bounce, but the results are a near-miss. ** from ****