1984's The Lonely Guy is one of my favorite Steve Martin films, along with
Planes Trains and Automobiles and
Roxanne.
This movie (originally panned by Ebert but enjoyed by Siskel -
watch their TV review from 1984 here) is a romantic comedy with lots of amusing sight gags and a bit of dark humor. Neil Simon is credited as one of the screenwriters.
In honor of its 30th anniversary, I've come up with 30 reasons why I enjoy this film.
1. Steve Martin's performance. My favorite moment in the film might be when he's interviewing for an apartment and has to answer all the landlord's questions in rapid succession. Comic brilliance.
2 The opening credit song Love Comes Without Warning by America and theme music by Jerry Goldsmith. Cheesey, but it seems to fit this era.
3. How it satirizes self-help gurus and dating in general (albeit dating in the 1980s). A well- known 80s' relationship guru of the time - Dr. Joyce Brothers - even agreed to make a cameo appearance.
4. The running "lonely guy" gag. Martin's character lives in a society where single, hopeless-romantics are stigmatized with that label. To enjoy this movie, I think you have to buy into this premise.
5. The opening scenes giving us a brief history of lonely guys through the ages, such as the caveman who always had to spend New Year's Eve alone.
6. All the visual humor. For example, when Martin goes apartment hunting, one of the apartments he visits is half underwater!
7. In the memorable restaurant scene, a spotlight shines on Martin after he orders a table for one! Martin sits down and asks the waiter, "Could you turn off the spotlight?" The waiter goes *snap* and off goes the light. Even Roger Ebert who hated the movie enjoyed that scene.
8. Charles Grodin as Martin's sad-sack best friend. Grodin is a great sidekick to Martin, and creates a memorable character who is sort of like a human "Eeyore" from Winnie the Pooh. Martin is the more upbeat and ambitious of the two, and they make a great screen pairing.
9. In one of my favorite scenes, Martin visits Grodin who has life-size cardboard cutouts of celebrities in his apartment (1980s-era celebrities, of course). A police officer comes by the apartment and painfully admits that he's a "lonely cop" and wants nothing more than a life-size cut-out of Gene Hackman (who of course played a hero cop in
The French Connection).
10. The scene where Martin meets Iris (Judith Ivey) in the diner, and how Iris can immediately tell that he's a "lonely guy".
11. After the first meeting, Martin loses Iris' phone number and forgets her name. Martin frantically calls almost every almost everyone listed in the phone book. "Hello is there a Doris there? How about Bess or Tess?"
12. The subway scene. In a classic scene, Martin is riding on a NY subway, looks out the window and suddenly sees Iris. He then grabs a can of spray paint from a gangbanger to write a message on the glass, impressing the gangbanger who exclaims: "Man, you are one baaaad backwards writer!"
13. How Martin's character is a greeting card writer, and the funny greetings he comes up with. I bet that this was the first time the occupation has ever been depicted on film, years before
500 Days of Summer featured a character with the same occupation
.
14. The fact that it was directed by Arthur Hiller - who helmed one of the 1970s' most popular romances,
Love Story. He adds a touch of sentimentally that gives the film heart. I like how when the lovers daydream about each other, the scenes are superimposed on free-frame shots.
15. The New York setting, and all the scenes in Central Park.
16. The rooftop scene, where Martin cries out for Iris and is joined by other guys on rooptops crying out for women they lost.
17. Martin meets a girl in a bar and starts to tell her how much he wants a real serious relationship, and after a long emotional pitch by Martin, she reveals that she's just looking for sex.
18. Martin and Grodin pop in VCR tapes of crackling log fires or scenes of fish swimming in an aquarium.
19. Martin and Grodin both buy ferns and treat them like real people. I've never been able to think of ferns in the same way again.
20. Martin visiting his psychiatrist. He rings the doorbell, and the doctor says, "Talk into the box". Martin bares his soul while a nosey neighbor listens to all.
21. The chess scene where Grodin plays chess with a computer that talks back.
22. Martin's fast-talking landlord.
23. Crooner Steve Lawrence singing "Isn't it Romantic?". You can't have him in a movie without a little singing.
24. How Martin's character finds success with his best-selling book, "A Guide for the Lonely Guy" yet still struggles with his relationships.
25. Martin dressed as Chaplin at a costume party.
26. Grodin watching a sci-fi movie all by himself at another party.
27. The channel surfing scene. Toward the end of the film, Martin has a disturbing vision of wasting his life away on the couch watching TV, and is thrown into the garbage. He suddenly jumps off his couch, looks at his remote as if it were a loaded pistol and tosses it to the ground. It's a hilarious moment.
28. Martin's own personal police escort as he runs to find Iris.
29. The very last scene of the movie. A great pay-off for Grodin's character, and a happy ending that leaves me smiling every time I see it.
30. Seeing all the outdated technology. The Lonley Guy feels like it was made a half-century ago or more, as characters use antiquated technology like typewriters, push-button phones, address books, and VHS tapes. No one uses cell-phones or does any texting, tweeting, online dating, or facebooking.
But this nostalgia factor is one of the reasons why I love The Lonely Guy, and other movies from the 1980s.
