User reviews

A movie about being lonely, doesn't grab you as the obvious subject to make a comedy about does it? But this movie does wonderfully.

Great performances from Martin and Grodin especially (in what in my opinion his is best ever role) as he guides Martin's character through what it is to be a lonely guy, from cocktail parties with cardboard cut-outs of film stars, to standing in as an opening act when their friends are going to be late for dates.

This he learns so well he turns it into a best selling book and eventually finds true love. A wonderful movie that will comfort anyone who is feeling a bit down as it shows that things could be so much worse.

This movie started out with a bang when I first saw it as a child. I was really disappointed when I could not watch it in its entirety. So when I had a chance to rent it, I jumped at the chance and I am rather sad I did. The first half was still funny, but all the stuff I missed was sadly worth missing. Not that it was all bad mind you, there was a chuckle or two in this part of the movie, but nothing compared to the laughs found in the first half of the film from when Steve finds out his girlfriend has been cheating on him, to the restaurant, to the strange jogging using fake sweat. Then a bit before he writes his book on how to be a lonely guy the movie really slows down its pace and it becomes a bit to sentimental at times, while still showing a bit of the zaniness that made the first half of the film really good. The story is about a lonely guy who starts off with a girlfriend, but ends up alone in rather funny fashion. He makes friends with another lonely guy played very well by Charles Grodin and they proceed to try and help each other out. Like I said you get some great scenes during this time and Steve meets up with a girl he for some reason cannot hook up with due to one problem after another. So in the end an okay movie, that just needed some of that energy from the first half of the film to carry over to the second.

Recently dumped by his girlfriend, struggling novelist and greeting card writer Steve Martin becomes one of New York City's Lonely Guys: unattached fellows who dine alone, sleep alone, take care of their ferns and occasionally jump off the Manhattan Bridge. Neil Simon's adaptation of Bruce Jay Friedman's book "The Lonely Guy's Book of Life", scripted by Stan Daniels and Ed. Weinberger, isn't full of great jokes, but does have enough of them to sustain enjoyment for about an hour. Once Martin becomes a success--writing a handbook for the Lonely Guys of the world--the picture has no place left to go and dies. Director Arthur Hiller probably didn't understand episodic comedy--his linking device between skits, conversations between Martin and lonesome cohort Charles Grodin, is occasionally more amusing and potentially more interesting than the main narrative--but Steve Martin is working at the peak of his charms and some of the gags have a low-key spark of genius. ** from ****

Larry (Steve Martin) comes home from his greeting card writing job to find his GF in bed with another man like only Steve Martin can. Once she spells it out for him that she no longer wants him he instantly joins the ranks of the lonely guys. How will he ever survive as a lonely guy? Warren (Charles Grodin), the monotone impassionate lonely guy veteran steps in to help Larry in this new stage of his life.

But Larry can't stay lonely forever can he? It's so sad, so depressing, so... so... so... lonely.

This movie isn't a laugh-a-minute but it always stays on the plus side of humor. It doesn't fall into somberness or seriousness and it doesn't go haywire either for cheap laughs. It's an enjoyable comedy about dealing with heartache, love, and the fear of the latter causing the former.

The Lonely Guy (1984) Director: Arthur Hiller Watched: 12/26/19 Rating: 3/5

"I don't like to take naps. I don't like to wake up more than once a day. 'Cause when I first wake up I get that shock of who I am and everything. I... I really don't like to do that more than once a day."

A favorite quote, which shows how this film managed to be funny although it did at times go maybe too far in minimizing or making light of suicide (other examples include the nonchalant freak show of falling bodies on the Manhattan Bridge, suicides reported casually on the radio after the weather announcements). But this is a black comedy after all and Steve Martin makes up for this with his hilarious shenanigans. Favorite shticks included: spotlight activated for a single diner; psychiatrist via apartment call box; automated chess machine friend; ferns as friends; fake sweat for possible running meet-cute; party cutouts from "The Lonely Guy Store"; renting a guy to talk to your girlfriend or wife so she won't wait for you alone in a bar; donating blood in order to lay in bed with a woman; and man on foot "pulled over" by a police officer who then"escorts" him on foot, all along regular traffic on the move!

Steve Martin is certainly in his element and is slowed down only by the subpar writing. Which makes sense as to why he usually writes and directs the films he stars in. I have no doubt that "The Lonely Guy" would have been much better received if this were the case. The first 45 minutes of this film were outstanding- Hubbard is a newly minted Lonely Guy, does his best to cope and find a new girl, and his antics keep us engaged and laughing. But the story quickly runs out of steam after he gets inexplicably hooked on Iris and the writing loses its wittiness.

Cameos by Merv Griffin and Doctor Joyce Brothers were a nice touch but not quite enough to save the latter half of the film.

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The Lonely Guy is often quite funny but unfortunately sometimes dreadfully dull. Like Jim Abrahams and later Mel Brooks movies, this is classic Neil Simon where he throws rapid-fire jokes at you. Some hit and some miss, but you don't have to wait long for the next one. The scene where he dines alone in a fancy restaurant was one of the funniest. Somebody else seemed to think so, too, as it was copied almost verbatim for an Australian TV commercial two years later. Imitation must be the sincerest form of flattery.

As a New Yorker, I liked seeing the city in this movie. It's a somewhat dirtier but more variegated New York than in movies like "Ghost" or "When Harry Met Sally," which spent too much time in tony neighborhoods like Tribeca, the Village and Midtown.

Unfortunately, the definitive home video version does not exist and probably never will. The laserdisc is marred by a bad transfer and excessive, very objectionable video and audio noise. This may be the dreaded laser rot in action or just bad production. The DVD is beautiful, with a crisp transfer and no noticeable noise. But its 1.85:1 widescreen presentation is in the form of matting/masking the 1.33:1 Academy Frame, so instead of showing more picture, it actually shows less than the cassette and the laserdisc. The matting makes the "widescreen" frame feel distractingly cramped, with characters' heads continually butting up against the top. One joke in particular suffers badly: When Larry is laying on a bed talking to a woman, he's bare-chested in his fantasy to imply they're in bed together. But the widescreen version shows only his head, so the joke is weakened. Too bad a full-frame DVD will probably never be made as this is one of the few times when a full-frame presentation would have been preferable.

This has to be one of Steve Martin's worst movies, and the main reason is that he's working from a hackneyed script created by Neil Simon, along with a couple of TV sitcom writers. The whole thing seems like it came out of a meeting where a staff of writers for a variety show were trying to come up with funny situations involving Lonely Guys. Some of the situations would have worked nicely as a blackout on a TV show, but in a feature film they just seem like unconnected building blocks.

The script doesn't play to Martin's strengths (wacky physical humor or surrealistic verbal humor), so he's playing a role that any bland actor - picture someone like Tony Roberts - could have done almost as well. Charles Grodin is merely an annoyance as the one-dimensional geeky lonely guy, and the main female characters are also static and uninteresting.

Even Jerry Goldsmith, who has beefed up many a marginal movie with a good score, goes vanilla here and gives us a bunch of goopy 80s cues, sounding like Dave Grusin on Prozac. The vocal numbers are horrendous, especially the screeching opening credit song by America, featuring a bad 80s drum machine/synth track. If you want a better early Steve Martin film, pick either the one BEFORE this ("Man with two Brains") or the one AFTER ("All of Me"), both of which are much better suited to his personality.

Funny how I watched this at 13/14 years old in 1990 on TV and I became a lonely guy myself...even worse... A gay one. Even harder to meet someone. I love this movie. Something very warm about it.

Other people here have commented on the unevenness of this movie. What an understatement. I found the first half of the movie funny, poignant, delightful. Then, all of a sudden, the movie becomes an unfunny, painful bore. It's amazing. The contrast between the two halves is so stark, it's hard to believe it's the same movie. I don't ever recall such a split between two halves of a movie. Ever.

And in the second half, there is a scene in bed involving the 'o' word, that is very painfully unfunny and completely inane.

But what do I know.

Two scenes that really stick out in my mind:

1. When the girl says to Steve: "Nice guys don't stay lonely for long" -- so sweet!

2. When Steve realizes he missed out on a golden opportunity to "get lucky" with a pretty woman. That was wickedly funny!

"The Lonely Guy" isn't as funny as some of Steve Martin's other movies, but it probably wasn't supposed to be since it focuses more on relationships. Martin plays a guy who comes home to find his lover in bed with another man, and sets out to find someone else. Assuming that ferns and dogs aren't the only options.

This movie does come across as one of Martin's more serious roles. "Grand Canyon" (about race relations in the 1990s), "...And the Band Played On" (about the spread of AIDS) and "The Spanish Prisoner" (about a con game) were his most serious roles, while this one still tends more towards comedy. The strength definitely lies in Martin's character's evolution from complete loner to a man actively in search of a soul mate. Some scenes are obviously thrown in for comic relief. I found the funniest scenes to be the fancy restaurant and the bridge. It's not a great movie, but OK.

Also starring Charles Grodin, Judith Ivey and Steve Lawrence, with guest appearances by Merv Griffin, Joyce Brothers and Loni Anderson.

I'd call this a small masterpiece.

I usually watch just ten minutes of a movie, find it boring, then discard it. Or, I fast forward through great big sections of a film and get satisfaction from the leftover bits and pieces. With this one I never once reached for the fast forward button. It is charming, touching, lovely, hilarious and satisfying. One cares deeply for the characters played by Martin and Grodin and wants happiness to come their way.

The sadness never overwhelms because the lighthearted scenes make for a perfect balance.

You could go through a whole row at Blockbuster and not find a gem like this one. If you have even just a touch of a tender heart, by all means rent this one.

You need to see this underrated Steve Martin comedy from the 80s called The Lonely Guy about a guy who lives by himself and wrote a bestseller about lonlieness and became a success. It's really funny.

This is dedicated to lonely guys everywhere. Larry Hubbard (Steve Martin) is an aspiring writer working at a greetings card company. He finds his girlfriend Danielle in bed with another man and she kicks him out. He befriends lonely guy Warren Evans (Charles Grodin) from the park bench. He meets Iris (Judith Ivey) at a diner but he smudges her number. He meets her again and loses her number again. She breaks up with him and he writes a book about his experience. He becomes a best seller.

It has a quirky original sense of spoof humor. This Arthur Hiller film reminds me of Mel Brooks. It's wacky light fun for a little while but it gets a bit repetitive. Martin and the sad Grodin have some nice comic chemistry. Judith Ivey is not funny enough. She needs to be as wacky as he is. She needs to be a great comedian. She's too limited. The perfect way for her character to go is for her to be a lonely gal. Even the sad Grodin feels repetitive with their pontifications.