Modern Romance

Robert is a film editor in Los Angeles. He breaks up with his girlfriend Mary; the decision is his and he regrets it two hours later. He telephones, sends flowers, they get back together, and then they break up again. The loop runs through the film. Meanwhile he is cutting a science fiction picture and works with the same indecision at the job. Albert Brooks directs, wrote the screenplay and plays Robert. Kathryn Harrold plays Mary. The idea is to show jealousy as an illness. Robert's behaviour is not endearing; he checks constantly, demands accounts and lives on suspicion he produces himself. The narrative does not present it as a romantic trait. The cutting room passages are the best thing in it. How a sound effect gets chosen, how a scene is saved and the daily business of the film industry are shown in detail; Brooks took them from real studio practice. Stanley Kubrick said he admired the film and that Brooks had made the picture about jealousy he had wanted to make. It failed commercially and became a cult film later, counted among the early instances of the uncomfortable protagonist in American comedy. Who it is for: viewers who like Albert Brooks and films built on an uncomfortable character. Who it is not for: the hero is unlikeable, the narrative repeats, and the humour is too dry for some.