The Goodbye Girl was a classic from the 70's starring Richard Dreyfuss,Marsha Mason and an excellent performance by a young Quinn Cummings. Dreyfuss won an academy award for his portrayal of Elliott Garfield a struggling actor trying to make it ,Mason as a jilted single mom and the delightful Cummings as her precocious daughter Lucy.For starters,why would you need to remake it in the first place and then disgrace it with a run of the mill TV movie of the week?. I'm not a big Jeff Daniels fan but even he deserves better ,he should have turned down the role- He is no Dreyfuss and watching him deliver the same lines is painful. Patricia Heaton(another irritating actress)is basically reprising her Everybody Loves Raymond's Debra character which isn't saying much(Why did she get nominated for a SAG award in the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries category?,she was horrible- just goes to show you that SAG voters have bad taste). The little brat who plays Lucy is none other then Hallie Kate Eisenberg - if you don't remember her your excused.She was another sickeningly sweet little girl who did Pepsi commericals when Pepsi was trying to reinvent itself(snore).According to IMDb ,she is just adored by fans and is a regular guest on Leno. I don't watch Leno and could care less. Dakota Fanning could act circles around Eisenberg who has all the cuteness of a wet sponge.

After I saw a little clip before the movie was shown, I thought the movie was going to be good; however, I guess my expectations were a bit too high. The movie was horrible and it had a mediocre plot line. Jeff Daniels and Patricia Heaton did not connect at all. I thought Lucy was way too smart for her age so it seemed a bit unrealistic. It seemed to me that Patricia Heaton fell in love with Jeff Daniels a bit too fast. One minute they are avoiding each other, and then the next scene you see the two in a bathroom making out. The movie barely had any funny parts with the exception of two events.Overall, the move just seemed stupid after a bit watching it and could have been revised much better than it was shown as a television movie.

I found this movie to be both unrealistic and unfunny. Patricia Heaton and Jeff Daniels made for one of the worst couples I've ever seen in a movie. There was poor chemistry between the two. I thought that the idea of these two people falling in love with each other was funnier then the film itself. Having said that, the lone highlight of the film is Hallie Kate Eisenberg as the young Lucy McFadden. She was the funniest aspect of this film. I also found Alan Cumming as the play director to be quite humorous. But the few laughs I had while watching this would not be enough to recommend this to anyone. This movie should not be meant for anything other than a bad Lifetime movie.

Had I not seen the 1977 picture first, I would have gone into this with an open mind. However, I had, and it was completely dreadful. Somethings in life shouldn't be remade. I love the Dreyfuss/Mason version because it's a bittersweet film, meant for those who love either the actors at their best or the genre. Anyway.....I heard about this being made and I thought it wouldn't be too bad. I mean Patricia and Daniels are quite talented. Contrary to belief, this TV movie was gutter material with second rate acting. They put the actors with the wrong characters, so it all seemed trash. They placed Alan Cumming, a very talented actor, in a very underhanded and under minded role, so we rarely see him use his creative juices. Same with Daniels. Patricia,who one could have done without with her pathetic Albertsons ads, would have been almost bearable in another film. Leave the '77 masterpiece alone, don't kill it!