Marriage is a funny thing to do... if you want to stay.
Best Friends is a 1982 Romantic Comedy starring Burt Reynolds and Goldie Hawn as the leading couple. The film was based on the love life of its two writers, Barry Levinson and Valerie Curtin (who divorced the year the film released), and directed by Norman Jewison.Richard Babson (Reynolds) and Paula McCullen (Hawn) are two Hollywood screenwriters living as roommates for years. While Paula feels no strong urge to get married, Richard would like to, so they decide to elope instead of hosting a big ceremony. The best friends turned newlyweds then decide to travel cross-country to visit their parents and inform them of what happened, who assume they are merely engaged and are happy to celebrate until the truth is revealed. This ends up souring the pair's mood, just in time to be called back to work for a script rewrite, and they decide that maybe they were better off as just friends.
This film includes the following Tropes:
- Better as Friends: This is the conclusion that the two reach at the end of the film, after the announcement of their elopement goes poorly and they start getting frustrated with each other's flaws.
- Claustrophobia: Paula suffers from this, leading to her accidentally overdosing on valium to relax when they visit Richard's parents that live in a windowless apartment, and later to Richard breaking a window open for her when they're Locked in a Room together and she needs fresh air.
- Elopement: Richard and Paula decide to elope at the start of the film due to Paula not wanting to make a big event out of it.
- Intoxication Ensues: While visiting Richard's parents, Paula overdoses on valium and ends up faceplanting into her lunch.
- Locked in a Room: Larry Weissman, the producer that Richard and Paula are working for, decides to lock the pair in a room together when they return from their trip at odds at each other and struggle working on the rewrites he needs.
- Riding into the Sunset: Parodied, in that the film ends with Richard and Paula walking into a sunset that turns out to be a Hollywood prop.
