Albert Brooks starred and also co-wrote the script with Monica McGowan Johnson. He plays Robert, a Hollywood film editor, who is in a roller-coaster of a relationship with Mary, a bank executive. The film pretty much drops in on one go-round of what is clearly there standard cycle of breaking up and falling madly in love again.It's quite a good film. Brooks is on the likable side of neurotic, and Kathryn Harrold as Mary is quite charming. James L. Brooks plays the director of the film that Robert is editing (He later cast Albert Brooks in Broadcast News.), and Bruno Kirby plays Robert's co-worker, Jay.The film is full of memorable scenes, including a bit of an extended sequence with Robert at home after he takes Quaalude's that is pure gold and quite a bit more underplayed than the Quaalude scene in Scorcese's The Wolf of Wall Street.It was interesting to watch this film in the context of the way films and television tackle relationships today - it feels a bit of a precursor to modern relationship comedies. The humor can be subtle and sometimes requires patience but it can really pay off. It's a well-paced film, too. I heard somewhere that - of all people - Stanley Kubrick was a big fan of the film! I guess the one thing that really stood out for me is that these two people really had nothing in common. Why would Mary want a guy who seems sweet but is really just obsessing about her? Once he gets that white picket fence and her behind it, to what will his obsessions turn?

Modern Romance is the most daring Albert Brooks film, and the funniest. He plays a film editor who is insanely jealous of his beautiful girlfriend. Even though the film is hilarious, it shares a similar dynamic with Raging Bull, which came out a few months before Modern Romance -- it focuses on a man who imagines his girlfriend is cheating on him, and yet it turns out not to be true. But even so, Brooks' character drives himself crazy with conjecture, imagining the worst. It is the flip side of trusting a girlfriend too much and then finding out she is sleeping with everyone.Modern Romance also reminds me of another dark drama, The Gambler from 1974, in which the protagonist is smart and charming but nonetheless seeks to sabotage himself with bad behavior. Why do people destroy themselves? Some people don't want to be happy, it seems. To get comedy out of this shows the genius of Brooks.Brooks' character, Robert Cole, is a successful film editor. We see him at work, and he is very creative and good at what he does. He is a control freak at work, making the most minute changes in the film he is working on, and he applies this same desire to control (to in effect "direct") his personal life. In a measure, he succeeds, because he is able to get his girlfriend to ultimately go along with what he wants, despite her misgivings -- and that's another issue to explore, why women fall in love with insecure or manipulative men and put up with their difficult personalities.Brooks is very brave in playing such a difficult character, and there is nothing warm and fuzzy about Robert Cole. Brooks never tries to get the audience to love him, whereas actors like Steve Martin or Robin Williams would try to take the hard edge off and make him lovable.Also impressive is Brooks spends a great deal of screen time by himself, talking on the phone, talking to himself, driving himself crazy and driving past his girlfriend's house, in effect stalking. He spends as much time alone as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. To turn all of this into comedy is a measure of Brooks' unique genius.

Though only his second directorial outing, "Modern Romance" is arguably Brooks' finest film and is the single most insightful and hilarious examination of the gut-wrenching and mind-twisting ordeal that is love. Some have commented that the movie is not as polished as his later work, and while that may be true from a cinematic standpoint, it is this raw quality that lends itself to an even greater statement about how a man can be turned upside down and inside out as he tries to comprehend life while under the influence of love. Brooks' doppelganger, Robert Cole, is the epitome of the obsessed and doomed lover, a man who knows his love for a woman (brilliantly portrayed by Kathryn Harrold, as the haughty and insecure Mary Harvard) is unhealthy, but is compelled nevertheless to have her. His struggle with reason and love is the central theme to the film, yet even though Cole is depicted as an irrational neurotic, never once does Brooks make him unsympathetic. While Coles' actions in his pursuit of Mary defy reason, anyone who has ever been in love will understand all too well why he does the things he does.This is perhaps that only movie for which it can be said that every single scene -- nay, every line -- is hilarious. Spectacular performances from Mr. Brooks, Kathryn Harold, Bruno Kirby, and terrific cameos from James L. Brooks (no relation), Bob "Super Dave Osborne" Einstein (who IS Brooks' brother....Yes, Albert Brooks real name is....Albert Einstein!), George Kennedy and, believe it or not, Harlem Globetrotter Meadowlark Lemon, whose scene with Brooks is a moment of surreal genius. If for no other reason, see this movie for "the movie within the movie" that Brooks' and Kirby's characters are editing.I would say to those who, for whatever reason, do not like Albert Brooks -- either you find him irritating or just don't get his humor -- then do not bother, because Brooks is center stage for the entire movie and the humor is the very essence of "Brooks-ian". Yet even if the movie seems very personal, it speaks to all of the world's "fools in love", managing to embody and transcend the filmmaker. I happen to think he is one of the funniest and insightful observers ever of the human condition, but am aware his style is not universally loved.Though made in 1981, it is as resonant now as it was then; and, considering that people, against all rational thought, will forever fall in love, this movie will always have something very insightful and extremely funny to say. For what it's worth, I have over the years rated almost a thousand movies and TV shows here at IMDb, and have given less than 15 "10 stars". "Modern Romance" is one of those few films, and deservedly so. I am not saying the movie is not without its flaws; but because of the nature and subject matter of the movie, and because it is painfully obvious that Albert Brooks' personal experience is very much on display, those flaws actually add to the genius of the work.

Having read the other comments on this film, I would like to share my own view that this is one tough movie to see unless you are a total Brooksophile. I am not.When looked at by a purely objective observer, the film is an unbalanced narrative that presents us with more undistilled neuroses than are capable of being absorbed in one sitting. It is quite difficult to watch. The Brooks character (Robert Cole) is so unsympathetic and unpleasant that it is hard to relate to him---let alone root for him as he stumbles from one dysfunctional self-absorbed situation to the next. And he should NEVER do a topless scene and expect to be taken seriously in a romantic context. No man could have that much exposed foliage and be supposed to turn on a babe like Kathryn Harrold----unless, of course, he is Albert Brooks in an Albert Brooks-controlled production."Modern Romance" has its amusing moments-----but they are fragmentary and infrequent. More often than not, I felt as if I were on a confined journey with a thoroughly dislikable person and wishing that it would end already. It confirms the problems that can develop when too much control of a film is placed in only one person---someone who lacks the self-discipline to be able to step back from it and see what is clearly happening.As most people probably know, James L. Brooks, who played the director in this film, is in fact what he portrayed. Six years later, he cast Albert Brooks in the very successful "Broadcast News." James showed us how Albert can shape a credible and entertaining comic performance. Albert allowed us to see James (generally not cast as an actor) do a rare comic turn in a surprisingly effective manner.Fans of "Modern Romance" will by now have moved on to the next laudatory comment about it. To you I say-----there is enough pain in the world without having to find it in a film intended as an entertainment.