Beyond Therapy (1987)
March 29, 2025 9:32 PM - Subscribe
When a woman answers a newspaper personal looking for a romantic connection, she doesn't expect to become entangled with a bisexual man currently living with his male lover.
Directed by Robert Altman, this film is an adaptation of a play written by Christopher Durang by the same name. Prudence (Julie Haggerty) meets Bruce (Jeff Goldblum) through a New York Magazine personal ad. As they have their first meeting, Bruce reveals he's not only bisexual but lives with his male lover, Bob (Christopher Guest). Unbeknownst to Bruce, Bob's mother, Zizi (Geneviève Page), sees the two of them together and later alerts Bob to Bruce's cheating.
Both Bruce and Prudence go to therapy after their disastrous date. Unknowingly their therapists, both of whom are exceedingly inept in different ways, have neighboring offices. In addition, Bruce's therapist Charlotte (Glenda Jackson) has a son, Andrew, who witnessed the date as he is a waiter in the restaurant. Prudence's therapist Stuart (Tom Conti) attempts to seduce her again despite Prudence pointing out the very questionable nature of him doing so since their therapy is focused on her not knowing what she wants.
Despite being ill matched with one another, Prudence and Bob end up meeting again and start pursuing a relationship together.
Directed by Robert Altman, this film is an adaptation of a play written by Christopher Durang by the same name. Prudence (Julie Haggerty) meets Bruce (Jeff Goldblum) through a New York Magazine personal ad. As they have their first meeting, Bruce reveals he's not only bisexual but lives with his male lover, Bob (Christopher Guest). Unbeknownst to Bruce, Bob's mother, Zizi (Geneviève Page), sees the two of them together and later alerts Bob to Bruce's cheating.
Both Bruce and Prudence go to therapy after their disastrous date. Unknowingly their therapists, both of whom are exceedingly inept in different ways, have neighboring offices. In addition, Bruce's therapist Charlotte (Glenda Jackson) has a son, Andrew, who witnessed the date as he is a waiter in the restaurant. Prudence's therapist Stuart (Tom Conti) attempts to seduce her again despite Prudence pointing out the very questionable nature of him doing so since their therapy is focused on her not knowing what she wants.
Despite being ill matched with one another, Prudence and Bob end up meeting again and start pursuing a relationship together.
Altman made a few great films and a lot of films that were both weird as hell and kind of boring to watch. This is not one of his great films. But yeah, amazing cast.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 12:16 AM on March 30 [1 favorite]
posted by Ursula Hitler at 12:16 AM on March 30 [1 favorite]
Another from Altman's 80's 'lost in the wilderness' era. It wasn't very good.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 10:07 AM on March 30 [1 favorite]
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 10:07 AM on March 30 [1 favorite]
So I've been thinking about this movie since I saw it last night. There's some interesting commentary buried in it about gender norms and representations in popular culture of romance. I think what Durang was going for was presenting how incredibly unhealthy romcoms are by taking the tropes they use (meet cutes for example) and taking them to the absurd so reveal them for what they are: toxic. The problem is that Altman tries to make the film conform to the very thing it's trying to lampoon. It tries to take this biting commentary and make it be just cute and silly. And that's why the film just comes off as tedious.
But I am intrigued enough by what I saw that I am going to dig up the play.
posted by miss-lapin at 5:59 PM on March 30
But I am intrigued enough by what I saw that I am going to dig up the play.
posted by miss-lapin at 5:59 PM on March 30
So in a weird twist of fate, I was unpacking yet another box of books today (I have three more to go). This box happened to have plays and specifically two different collections of Christopher Durang plays. One of them has Beyond Therapy, which I sat down and read a bit of it.
The book included two casts for the play. The first cast was an off broadway production at the Phoenix Theater in Jan 1981 and featured Sigourney Weaver as Prudence and Stephen Collins as Bruce. I actually found some stills from the production. The second production was on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theater in May 1982. It featured John Lithgow as Bruce, Dianne Wiest as Prudence, Peter Michael Goetz as Dr Framingham, Kate McGregor-Stewart as Mrs Wallace Jack Gilpin as Bob, and David Hyde Pierce as Andrew. Here are some stills. While I doubt 7 year old me would have appreciated it, I wish I could have seen that Broadway cast!
posted by miss-lapin at 3:58 PM on April 2
The book included two casts for the play. The first cast was an off broadway production at the Phoenix Theater in Jan 1981 and featured Sigourney Weaver as Prudence and Stephen Collins as Bruce. I actually found some stills from the production. The second production was on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theater in May 1982. It featured John Lithgow as Bruce, Dianne Wiest as Prudence, Peter Michael Goetz as Dr Framingham, Kate McGregor-Stewart as Mrs Wallace Jack Gilpin as Bob, and David Hyde Pierce as Andrew. Here are some stills. While I doubt 7 year old me would have appreciated it, I wish I could have seen that Broadway cast!
posted by miss-lapin at 3:58 PM on April 2
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This movie really misses the mark, which is a shame especially considering the cast. Goldblum works perfectly. Haggerty and Guest both have moments where they hit it perfectly, but overall the problem is Altman's directing which I think tried to make this more into a zany farce/romcom and that made all the commentary (on therapy, for example) into just silliness. So this one might be better to just read the play and not watch the movie.
posted by miss-lapin at 9:40 PM on March 29