I will start off this review by saying I like Al Pacino. Any movie with him in it's cast, is given a chance by me. Before he started to just shout his dialogue he was one of my favourite actors.Author! Author! Finds him doing a rare comedic turn Pacino plays a Broadway playwright with a cheating wife, and five loving children (only one of whom is his own.) who are devoted to him. Ivan who loses, loves, struggles, suffers and still never loses his sense of humour.Is this a role for Al Pacino, an actor not known for tickling audiences funny bones? It may have been better suited to a Robin Williams (who was doing Mork & Mindy on TV in those days) or a Burt Reynolds (who was at the top of his game in 1982) but he is by no means wrong for it. I appreciate it when actors try something new. Like when Reynolds made 'Starting Over' or Williams made 'Good Will Hunting'. And Pacino tries something new here, he is as watchable as always, but these are not two of his better hours. Of the rest of the cast Dyan Cannion is gorgeous and still an attractive lady, if only the rest of the cast were as appealing as the two leads. The kids were on the awful end of child actors scale, and everyone else just blends in to the background. As far as I know, this was the first and last time Pacino tried a full out comedy. Scarface was his next role.

Al Pacino is obviously a great actor, but when he goes soft for a role, he can be insufferably soft. Here, as a New York City playwright with a new show about to open on Broadway, he's mechanically turned on, yet there's no sparkle in his eyes. Pacino's wife walks out on him, leaving him to care for his gaggle of kids and step-kids, but the viewer is ready to feel more for the wife (Tuesday Weld) than we're expected to. This Neil Simon-wannabe tries putting a funny spin on the divorce-movie formula (with a little "Goodbye Girl" tossed in for good measure), but the scenario is unconvincing and the jokes are tepid. Dyan Cannon gives it a big boost as a movie actress trying her hand on the stage, but poor Al just looks beat. Who knows? Maybe he thought this would be his "Kramer vs. Kramer". ** from ****

The only reason I saw this movie, was because Al Pacino was starring in it. I'm a huge fan of him and I don't want to miss any of his movies. "Author! Author!" is a highly enjoyable comedy-drama about a family guy and his many kids. Al Pacino plays a writer of stage plays who is dealing with some personal problems with his wife which also affects his writing.Of course, "Author! Author!" isn't the best Al Pacino movie ever made, but it's certainly worth watching. This movie was a pleasant surprise. The director Arthur Hiller has also directed the timeless romantic classic "Love Story" with Ryan O'Neal. I think Al Pacino was worth his Golden Globe nomination.Fine and well acted comedy-drama.7,5/10

i watched this movie on AMC the other morning and i gotta say, (as a huge Pacino fan that i am), i thought this movie was pretty funny. Not one of Pacino's best, as you probably didn't need me to say, but i think he still puts on a very good performance. He was kind of in his "...And justice for all" mode in this as i took it. Pacino's wife is leaving him, but he is still able to keep in touch with his ingenious charisma to get himself through some pretty outrageous situations. Every actor has a movie that didn't do that good or that isn't considered that great. Come on. Even Brando and De Niro have theirs. I gotta say even though this may be considered one of Pacino's worse films, it was still definitely better than that trash "City Hall". I think a lot of people who see this movie really don't know how to take in Pacino's humor, simply maybe because people just aren't used to him trying to be a real "funny" guy because they are so used to seeing him in his more serious, dramatic roles, (Godfather, Scarface, Serpico, etc.) I on the other hand thought that he was pretty funny at times with his sort of abrasive, dry, and witty type humor. So I give props to Pacino for making a film like this. It's good to try something different. As an actor i'm sure he wanted a break away from so many years of all the drama he did in the 70s and just try something new. And it's not even like he went into comedy completely because the very next year Brian De Palma's masterpiece "Scarface" was released and he was back to his street savvy gangster roles that made him what he is known for today. If your a huge Pacino fan like me i would say see this movie and just try to appreciate it for what it is, and try not to take the dry humor too seriously. Just laugh at all the crazy situations that he encounters. To me you really can't put "bad movie and "Pacino" in the same sentence. But then again hey ya can't win em all can ya?