Line #34 Film/TheGoodbyeGirl


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_goodbye_girl_1977.jpeg]]
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3	->''"You love to love someone, but the minute they start taking the initiative like I did last night that scares the pants off you."''
4	-->-- '''Elliot'''
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6	''The Goodbye Girl'' is a 1977 RomanticComedy film directed by Herbert Ross and written by Creator/NeilSimon, starring Creator/RichardDreyfuss and Creator/MarshaMason.
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8	Paula [=McFadden=] (Mason), a 33-year-old semi-retired dancer and divorcée with a ten-year-old daughter named Lucy (Creator/QuinnCummings), has to become un-retired when her married, actor boyfriend Tony leaves town, breaking up with her via a "Dear John" note. Even worse is that their shared [[BigApplesauce New York City]] apartment was leased under Tony's name, and he has sub-let it to another actor, Elliot Garfield (Dreyfuss), who's arrived from Chicago to star in a play. Paula is horrified to have a stranger moving into her apartment--and another actor, at that!--but Elliot has a lease and a key, so they grudgingly work out an arrangement in which they will share the apartment.
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10	Naturally, romantic sparks fly.
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12	One of the rare films for which Neil Simon wrote an original screenplay, ''The Goodbye Girl'' received five UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nominations, with Richard Dreyfuss becoming the youngest person to win Best Actor up to that time (since broken by Adrien Brody for ''Film/ThePianist''). Remade in 2004 as a MadeForTVMovie directed by Creator/RichardBenjamin and starring Creator/JeffDaniels and Creator/PatriciaHeaton.
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14	----
15	!!Tropes:
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17	* AdorablyPrecociousChild: Lucy, who is ten but has a very adult outlook on life, and isn't nearly as bothered about Paula shacking up with a married man as Paula is.
18	* BelligerentSexualTension: Right off the bat, as Elliot notes Paula's "shapely fanny" during their first and rather hostile meeting.
19	* TheBigRottenApple: Paula is mugged in broad daylight outside a liquor store, losing her purse and all her money.
20	* BookEnds: In Elliot and Paula's first scene, he arrives at the apartment, then has to call her from a phone booth during a torrential thuderstorm after she tells him to go away. In their last scene, he leaves, but then calls her again from the phone booth, during a torrential thunderstorm.
21	* TheCameo: Creator/NicolWilliamson makes an uncredited appearance as the film director who offers Elliot a leading role in his next movie.
22	* CampGay: How Elliot is instructed to play Richard III, much to his horror.
23	* DamnedByFaintPraise: After the horrific first (and, as it turns out, last) performance of ''Theatre/RichardIII'', even director Mark Bodine's ''own mother'' can only tell him that it was "very interesting" (which Mark misinterprets to mean that she loved it).
24	* DeadpanSnarker: Lucy gets the best lines, like in the scene where they're watching Elliot play a gay Richard III.
25	--> "Looks like the guy at the beauty parlor."
26	* DearJohnLetter: The film opens with Paula finding a letter from Tony on the mantel, announcing that they are not going to California for his TV-movie role, but instead that he is breaking up with her and going to Europe to play in a Creator/BernardoBertolucci film. He does not mention that he sublet the apartment.
27	* DoYouWantToCopulate: Paula has been shy and hesitant in the face of Elliot's advances, but after he stages a rooftop dinner date for the two of them, she goes straight to "Are we going to sleep with each other tonight?"
28	* DrowningMySorrows: Elliot gets very drunk after reading the brutal reviews of both the ''Richard III'' show and his performance.
29	* EmpathicEnvironment: A thunderstorm drenches New York as an enraged Paula is tearing down Tony's pictures after finding out he sublet the apartment.
30	* FallenOnHardTimesJob: After his disastrous ''Richard III'' closes, Elliot winds up as a sidewalk barker outside a strip club.
31	* FamilyFriendlyStripper: Elliot hands out fliers outside a strip club where the girls keep bikinis on.
32	* TheGhost: Tony, who is already gone when the film starts, but he is frequently discussed, his pictures are up on the wall, and Paula and Lucy read his letter.
33	* GiftedlyBad: Director Mark Bodine thinks his idea of portraying the title character in ''Theatre/RichardIII'' as an outrageously flamboyant CampGay stereotype is a stroke of genius, and nothing, including constant pushback from Elliot, will persuade him otherwise. After the first performance, during which a third of the audience members walk out in disgust, Mark's ''own mother'' is clearly trying to let him down gently by saying she thought it was "interesting", and he reacts as if a top critic has just given him a glowing review.
34	* HangoverSensitivity: Elliot is much the worse for wear the morning after drowning his sorrows. When he sees Paula and Lucy for the first time, he asks which of them Scotch taped his tongue to the roof of his mouth.
35	* InCaseYouForgotWhoWroteIt: The credit in the opening titles is "Neil Simon's ''The Goodbye Girl''".
36	* TheLadysFavour: Gender-swapped. As Elliot is leaving the apartment to go film a movie, just like Tony did, Paula is terrified that he'll never come back as Tony didn't--until she realizes he left his guitar, which he would never willingly give up, in the apartment. Then she knows he's coming back to her.
37	* MeetCute: Elliot arrives at his new apartment dripping wet from the rain, fishes out his key, opens the door--and finds the chain on the hook. Someone is living there.
38	* TheMistress: Paula was this for Tony, who hadn't gotten around to divorcing his wife. She's embarrassed over this.
39	* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Elliot SleepsInTheNude, and when he can't sleep, he plays his guitar.
40	--> '''Paula''': I thought you said you were decent.\
41	'''Elliot''': [[ExactWords I am decent]]. I also happen to be naked.
42	* OlderThanTheyLook: Elliot claims to be 63 years old, though he's almost certainly being facetious.
43	* PrecisionFStrike: Lucy has been told that Tony sublet their apartment.
44	-->'''Lucy:''' He rented the apartment. What a shitheel. ''[Paula looks at her as if to say "''What'' was that!?"]''
45	* PunctuatedForEmphasis: As the first rule in his pushback against Paula trying to dictate the ground rules in their apartment sharing agreement, Elliot marches into the bathroom, where several pairs of Paula's underwear are drying on the curtain rod. Elliot announces that he likes to take showers every morning, "And I don't! Like! The panties! Drying! On! The Rod!" - grabbing one pair for each exclamation point before dumping the whole pile into Paula's arms.
46	* ScreenToStageAdaptation: Simon adapted the movie into a {{musical}} that premiered on Broadway in 1993, starring Creator/BernadettePeters and Creator/MartinShort.
47	* ShoutOutToShakespeare: Elliot has come to New York to star in an "off-off-off Broadway" presentation of ''Theatre/RichardIII''. It is terrible.
48	* StylisticSuck: Elliot's performance of ''Theatre/RichardIII'', not because he's a bad actor, but because of the director's absurd premise of portraying Richard as a stereotypically effeminate CampGay.
49	* ThatCameOutWrong: While Elliot is calling Paula from a payphone in the pouring rain to explain his side of Tony not telling Paula he was subletting the apartment to Elliot and not telling Elliot that Paula was still living there, he chooses his words poorly:
50	-->'''Elliot:''' Look, I don't know what Tony told you, but he's got my money, I got a lease, and you got the apartment. Now, one of us got screwed- uh, let me rephrase that.
51	* TitleThemeTune: Written and performed by [[Music/BreadBand David Gates]], it reached #15 on the ''Billboard'' chart.
52	* WalkingOutOnTheShow: By the time Richmond is being hailed as King Henry VII of England at the end of the disastrous production of ''Theatre/RichardIII'', nearly a third of the audience members have had enough and walked out. Paula and Lucy only stay to support Elliot.

Context Film / TheGoodbyeGirl