YMMV / The Goodbye Girl

• Funny Moments:
  • The standoff between Paula and Elliot over who gets to set the ground rules after she finally agrees to share the apartment with him is hilarious thanks to Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason's impeccable comic delivery.
    Paula: [stripping the linens off the bed in Lucy's room as Elliot watches from the doorway] This is your room. I do not clean or make beds. You may use the kitchen or the bathroom when I am not in it and wash it up when you are through. You pay for your own food, laundry, linens and phone bills. [exits the bedroom and opens the linen cupboard] I would appreciate some quiet between 6 and 9 as that is when Lucy does her homework, and I don't care what you drink or smoke. As long as it is not grass in front of my 10-year-old daughter. [takes out a couple of towels and a washcloth and hands them to Elliot] Now, we have everything straight?
    Elliot: [shoving the towels and washcloth back into Paula's arms] NO.
    Paula: "No"!?
    Elliot: [folds arms defiantly] No. I'm not crazy about the arrangements.
    Paula: [half disbelief, half disgust] You're not?!
    Elliot: Definitely not. I am paying the rent, I will make-a da rules. [beckons her into the bathroom, then marches over to the bathtub, where Paula's underwear is hanging over the curtain rod] I like to take showers every morning, and [grabbing one lingerie item on each exclamation point] I don't! Like! The panties! Drying! On! The rod! [on the last word, he dumps the pile of underwear into Paula's arms, then storms across to the kitchen] I like to cook, so I will use the kitchen whenever I damn well please, and I'm very particular about my condiments, [picks up the salt and pepper shakers on the table] so keep y'salt and pepper to y'self. [slams them on the counter next to the sink] Plus! I play the guitar in the middle of the night whenever I cannot sleep, [Paula can only watch in stunned silence as he marches back across to the living room] and I meditate every morning, complete with chanting and burning incense, so if you've gotta walk around, I'd appreciate a little tiptoeing. Also, I sleep in the nude. A-buff-o.^note  This word was Richard Dreyfuss' idea; he has claimed in interviews that it was his only contribution to the script. Winter and summer, rain or snow, with the windows open. And because I may have to go to the potty [gestures toward it] or to the fridge [points to it] in the middle of the night, and because I don't want to put on jammies, which I do not own in the first place, unless you're looking for a quick thrill, or your daughter an advanced education, I would keep my door closed. Them's my rules and regulations, how does that grab ya?
  • Elliot's performance as Richard III. It's intended to be awful, he knows it's awful, and we feel bad for him, but... good God.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Years later there would be a gay Richard the Third.
• Questionable Casting: The first version of the script ran into this with Robert De Niro, who had just finished shooting Taxi Driver and turned out to have no idea how to play Simon's style of comedy: the rushes were reportedly so bad that the original director Mike Nichols fired De Niro and shut the entire production down after being unable to find an immediate replacement.
• Values Dissonance: Elliott flirting with Lucy and making romantic references in their conversations was considered harmless and playful during the film's release, but tends to be criticized heavily by modern viewers, and some consider it borderline pedophiliac at times.

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