This is brilliant movie for sure. It makes you think, enjoy and sadden as well ! The basis of the non-stop deception and killing is just super, managing to give you both the thriller time and the deep melancholic meaning (the sadness part!). It was also some kind of prophecy about the widespread presence of the twist technique in a lot of the American movies in the next decade. Yet here it was more sane to a classic status.I liked the way this movie's dirty world was shown, along with its deformed dictionary of relationships where there is no brotherhood (the brother kills his brother), no happy marriage (the husband cheats on his wife) and there is no real friendship at all, even the one who finds himself in love so refuses to betray it (Johnson when rejects his affair with Arquette) he becomes, according to this formula, the weakest person in such a world so he naturally must be the first to die, because pure love in such circumstances is a sign of murderous weakness ! (Arquette)'s character herself was pushed by her love to commit a crime (killing her husband and his mistress) yet blinded by this love she didn't do it thoroughly however she got away with it ONLY by the power of money…the new rescuer love.Harmonize with that many swift but so effective points; for instance beginning the movie with an act of obscenity taking place in a church, while everyone there thinks How great and imposing; that summarized - in smartly ironic way - the whole disordered logic of this cosmos, so its double-faced nature.So it was bright also to make the field of the leads' business center around publicity (read : duplicity) and relating that at the last shot to the political figure when appears so polished while in the same time the 2 female killers are loose and innocent more than ever; like saying nicely what a world of colored lying we live in.Look at the passion of "Sound of Music" as a good irony between the ethereal spirit of music as perfect embodiment for love so its power of changing on one side and the translation of all of that according to our ugly modern time on the other side where there is no sound or love but for the green !Or look at the little appearance of the character of the serial killer; firstly as someone this world produces and needs, so secondly as someone with all the evil in the world doesn't have a chance in front of 2 greedy and sharp women, not because simply 2 killers are more powerful than 1, but because this is a crazily violent world where you're whether deadly or dead ! Thus it was a priori to have the only character that doesn't belong to this formula (DeGeneres' partner) as so naive (even if he's intelligent), so dull and so queer expressly when he doesn't think about making money or being bloody opportunist, or even suspects something dirty around.And what a dark message this movie delivers eventually about love in today's world whereas it ends its events with 2 women live for enjoying money and money only. It was smart move not to show them as lesbians because that would've transformed their relationship into a case the emotion got to do something with it, but who said that there is originally a smell of love in this very sick world ?!As for the dialog it got some of the cleverest lines I've ever heard in a movie, meaning of course all what was written for Ellen DeGeneres' character as the melancholically cynical yet deeply materialistic investigator, making it one of the most memorable characters in the history of Noir film. Save the way DeGeneres discovers the whole matter at the end so easily to fabricated extent, it's fun like a remarkable black comedy about the despotism of the materialism in our present life. Delivering the pessimistic message of "goodbye love" cynically as it should be. P.S : there is amazing Indian remake 10 years after (yes, believe it or not it is AMAZING !) which could make you wonder did Goodbye Lover utilize all of its chances or not?!

GOODBYE LOVER slipped by a lot of viewers when it was released in 1998 and it is only now while on DVD that the quality of this little tongue-in-cheek film noir is gaining steady popularity. And that is basically due to a superb cast of fine actors who obviously are enjoying every minute of the project.Sandra (Patricia Arquette) is a girl of somewhat lethal ambition, married to Jake (Dermot Mulroney) but having an affair with Jake's brother Ben (Don Johnson) who is also having an affair with his secretary Peggy (Mary-Louise Parker). The action quickens when the dark murder-for-insurance angle appears, but this also opens the door for the entrance of detective Pompano (Ellen DeGeneres) and her oingo-boingo partner Rollins (Ray McKinnon) who set about solving the tangled mysteries. The results create a very funny, dark humored movie that sparkles in the hands of all of the actors, especially with DeGeneres and Arquette.A great movie? No, but one that is a lot of fun as directed with an astute grasp of the medium by Roland Joffé

What an under-rated gem of a film! Why Warner brothers did not push to promote this in 1999 is a mystery to me. Sure, it is a mix of genres. that is what makes a good and interesting film. The cast is just perfect. Patricia Arquette clearly relishes in this role, as the sultry, devious, silly, and obsessive Sandra Dunmore. Here blunt bob haircut says it all. Don't mess with her. As always, her performance makes most of the film, and easily holds the audience attention through each twist and turn. Ellen Degeras is a bit over the top in her role as Rita Pompeno, the over eating and negative detective, however is still funny. If you want to sit back and have fun, mix up a cocktail and watch this film with friends. You will all be smiling.

I enjoyed this movie, but did feel like the movie could be separated into two parts: Ellen-free and full-of-Ellen. I remember liking Ellen in her sitcom, but she was simply AWFUL in this movie. Her quirky comedy was entirely out of place here. It clashed with the rest of the kooky, hip feel of Goodbye Lover.The rest of the cast did an excellent job. There were a few too many twists where I would find myself looking at the clock wondering if it would ever finish. I would rate this a 7/10. If Ellen could have been recast or cut, I would have given it an 8.5.