Best Friends

1982

Comedy / Drama / Romance

5
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 62% · 13 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 33% · 2.5K ratings
IMDb Rating 5.5/10 10 3517 3.5K

wedding reception screenwriter writing honeymoon hollywood co-workers relationship

Director

Norman Jewison Photo
Norman Jewison

Top cast

Richard Libertini Photo
Richard Libertini as Jorge Medina
Audra Lindley Photo
Audra Lindley as Ann Babson
Keenan Wynn Photo
Keenan Wynn as Tom Babson
Valerie Curtin Photo
Valerie Curtin as Paula's Friend in Playpen
480p.DVD
963.61 MB
718*406
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles
23.976 fps
1 hr 48 min
Seeds 8

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by planktonrules 5 / 10

The first part...great. The final portion....problematic.

Richard and Paula (Burt Reynolds and Goldie Hawn) have been living together for years...and they are quite content in this arrangement...particularly Paula. But when Richard decides that they should get married, all sorts of problems result during their honeymoon. Much of it is because they don't really go on a honeymoon but go to visit each other's parents...and it does not go well. In fact, it goes so poorly that they then decide they might be better off divorced!The first part of this film is funny...in a cringe-inducing sort of way...which I enjoyed. Seeing their awful families was cute and fun. But when the pair decided to break up, the film became very dark and unpleasant. Seeing two people who supposedly love each other then hurting each other make this a difficult film to watch...at least for me. Had they kept the momentum and spirit of the first part, I would have loved the film...but the grim (and unrealistic) final portion just seemed to make the story grind to a halt. Still, overall, it's worth seeing, just terribly uneven.
Reviewed by fredrikgunerius 5 / 10

Could have been a good movie

Norman Jewison (In the Heat of the Night, Rollerball) directed this supposedly romantic comedy about a middle-aged writing couple acting like teenagers at the behest of their respective parents. Barry Levinson and Valerie Curtin wrote the script, based on their own relationship, and while it's not too difficult to spot the authenticity and potential, the script limits itself and gets too hung up on its own conundrums. After a fun start, in which the chemistry between stars Burt Reynolds and Goldie Hawn is palpable and very much enjoyable, the film starts to drag when the couple go on a road trip to their in-laws. It's all obviously meant to feel claustrophobic, but the film isn't just suffocating its protagonists; it's also suffocating itself. There's a lack of perspective here, which the filmmakers try to make up for with babbling, Allenesque dialogue, making the film's various stages seem perpetual and unforgiving. Reynolds and Hawn not only wear each other out, they also wear this entire film out. And Jewison is never able to find the tools to lift Best Friends out from its own misery. It could have been a good movie.
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