If any actor was born to dominate this Neil Simon repartee, it would be Richard Dreyfuss, whose 1977 Best Actor Oscar documents that skill. Eliot Garfield (Dreyfuss), an out-of-work New York actor sublets a friend's flat, only to find it already occupied by Paula McFadden (Mason), a single mom and her ten-year old daughter (Cummings). Since each is a legal tenant, they must share the flat and try to adapt to each other's “rules,” particularly Mason's. But, and perhaps the film's finest moment is Dreyfuss' assertive monologue of his habits which include mantras “in the nude,” midnight guitar and wide-open windows. As each seeks a show-biz break, and the child softens the domestic tensions, it is not long before this mismatched pair learns they have many things in common and that some actors can be true gentlemen, despite Quinn's premature warning that, “Mom, this one's going to Seattle.”
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The review of this Movie prepared by Angry Jim Magin
