Good start, but then it gets ruined

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Paula McFadden (Patricia Heaton) is 36 and a little too old to be a dancer. She is left behind by her married actor boyfriend Tony DeForrest for a job in Italy. She doesn't have any money staying in the apartment with her daughter Lucy (Hallie Kate Eisenberg). It turns out that Tony sublet his apartment to Elliot Garfield (Jeff Daniels) out from under her. She refuses to leave and Elliot reluctantly agrees to let her stay.Patricia Heaton is wrong for this role. She can't pull off even a former dancer. Also I don't think that she's quite right to be Eisenberg's mom. She's much better in a soccer mom role. Daniels is charming. Eisenberg is great as the talkative little girl. The Neil Simon play is still good but everything is a little bit off. The '77 movie is perfectly fine. This feels like a faded copy. The apartment doesn't have quite the NYC feel. I do like Eisenberg with Daniels and their scene together is great. Basically the movie feels wrong but it still has the essence of a good story.

This movie was brilliantly done. I confess that I've never seen the 1977 original, and it is no insult to the actors in that one to say that Jeff, Patricia, and Hallie are a fabulous trio in this film. Take this version as a standalone and you will be impressed! The comic timing is excellent; the emotion is vividly real in almost every scene; the chemistry is actually better early on, when it is more below the surface, than later in the film; and the casting could not have been more perfect.Jeff Daniels is particularly excellent as Elliot Garfield, with his artful blend of dry humor and simple passion. An actor playing an actor on screen is rarely demonstrated so well, but his charm keeps this character utterly believable. I was not a big fan of Patricia Heaton until she took this role, but I discovered a depth in her acting that was not as evident to me from her television work. It helps that she is obviously an intelligent woman, and she brings an endearing mix of tentative hope and cynicism to this character, just as she should. Hallie Kate Eisenberg, in her second role as an intelligent, rather mature child, is the perfect complement to Patricia's Paula McFadden. Hallie plays Paula's daughter in this film, more innocent and hopeful than her mother, but not a stranger to the world and its emotional threats. All three characters are very human, very real; and the intelligent, witty dialogue is so plausible that you almost feel you are being told this story by the characters themselves who are your personal friends.Overall, brilliantly made, perfectly cast, and a real delight! Fans of comedy, romance, and even biting wit, will all be charmed and impressed.

The little girl always seemed smarter and older than she really was. Her attitude bothered me. The only time that she acted like a ten year old was when she was crying. The character of Paula could have been a strong character but she seemed to depend on others to help her and to make her feel better, even her daughter. I did think it was funny. Especially the buffo part. I liked how fast the dialog went. Not to fast that it was hard to understand but not to slow either. One thing however that irked me was the fact that Jeff Daniels was naked behind a guitar. Ewww! Over all I felt that it was a pretty good movie and wouldn't mind watching it again.

I love Patricia Heaton on "Raymond." When I heard she was playing Marsha Mason's role in the The Goodbye Girl" I thought it was casting genius and I am also fond of Jeff Daniels (his best work is the Woody Allen film: Purple Rose of Cairo) but I didn't see the two together.I watched with anticipation and understood in just a few minutes that they blew it. Every moment ached with mannequin-like performances even the little girl who is supposed to be a smart-Alic, is actually just smarter than the protagonist and her love interest, Daniels. This one made me angry because I kept watching thinking these two would somehow redeem themselves: but they drone on and on. Don't bother with this one: its a counterfeit. The real dollar bill is the Mason/Dreyfus version which is one of the sweetest stories on film. Remember! ...goodbye doesn't mean forever...unless you watch the Heaton/Daniels version of "The Goodbye Girl."