Just the music alone (written and produced by Allan Nicholls, who also has an acting role) would make this one of Robert Altman's most unsung pictures. The plot follows Paul Dooley and Marta Heflin, respectively and combinedly, as they unite, separate and reunite through a fateful series of incidents, particularly involving their family groups. Sheila's (Heflin) is literally a group of rock musicians --a thoroughly recognizable Altmanesque ensemble, a stroke of his genius--, people she works with and lives with but without blood-relation; Alex's (Dooley) consists of his large Greek folk, from whom he feels very much detached and alienated (aside from his ill sister, played by Belita Moreno). Alex, a guy in his early 40s, still lives in the…

There's kind of a bittersweet love story between insecure middle-aged children on 'computer dates' from which Altman can't resist taking the piss whenever an opportunity presents itself. He handles the melodrama with as much bombast as possible. Thunderstorms, swelling classical strings, open-casket funerals, and those sorts of things, usually occurring all at once.

The story distracts from the real main attraction, the travails of Keepin' 'Em Off the Streets, a dysfunctional commune of pseudo-musicians who bust ass every single day to produce atrocious pop music accompanied by heinous stage routines (the lead singer is always carrying either an infant or a beer bottle). Tuneless, hookless, senseless easy-listening crap with titles like "Come into My Fantasy", a tender ballad about unrequited…

Very different, quirky and uncommon Altman rom-com that features Paul Dooley as a put-upon man-child and Marta Heflin as a singer in an Up With People/Electric Mayhem-style rock band unhappy in her station in life. As is the director’s wont, the film explores unexpected places and situations that bely the genre’s typical paint-by-number plot points. Reader’s Note: A PERFECT COUPLE has a LOT of 70s musical performance in it: a couple of the songs are good but a lot of them are, ahem, too much. 

Dooley is a treat here as an overeager, inexperienced forty-something lovelorn while the excellent Heflin is unsure and tentative, not entirely comfortable that she wants love or to be loved. JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR star Ted…

Coming after the deliberately bleak and alienating Quintet, A Perfect Couple looks like the most conventional film co-writer/director Robert Altman has made since 1968’s Countdown. It’s a generally cute romantic comedy of errors—a little screwball, a little farce, a little musical. It follows the foibles of Alex Theodopoulos (Paul Dooley) and Sheila Shea (Marta Heflin), two people who meet through a dating service and whose lives (and attitudes) seem incompatible from the outset. Yet both have enough of an attraction to each other to try and make it work (almost forcibly, in Alex’s case), to try and get past all the bullshit stopping a relationship from being successful, like family, career, and so on. Originally written for a older couple closer…

What a strange little movie. A romantic comedy that isn't particularly funny nor particularly romantic, A Perfect Couple feels like a jumble of ideas sutured together at the last minute. Paul Dooley is effortlessly charming in a befuddled way, and Marta Heflin feels a bit like she was called in because Shelly Duvall was sick (in actuality, Heflin replaced Sandy Dennis because Dooley was deathly allergic to cats and Dennis was a cat lover who would bring her cats to script readings). The opening segment of the film, following their first date at the Hollywood Bowl in a rainstorm, is probably the most consistently pleasurable portion of the film.

Yet the further things go, the more needlessly convoluted they get.…

Coming after the deliberately bleak and alienating Quintet, A Perfect Couple looks like the most conventional film co-writer/director Robert Altman has made since 1968’s Countdown. It’s a generally cute romantic comedy of errors—a little screwball, a little farce, a little musical. It follows the foibles of Alex Theodopoulos (Paul Dooley) and Sheila Shea (Marta Heflin), two people who meet through a dating service and whose lives (and attitudes) seem incompatible from the outset. Yet both have enough of an attraction to each other to try and make it work (almost forcibly, in Alex’s case), to try and get past all the bullshit stopping a relationship from being successful, like family, career, and so on. Originally written for a older couple closer…

A Not So Perfect Couple

A Perfect Couple is the first Altman movie that hasn't felt like an Altman movie since he first developed his signature style of directing back in 1969 with the release of That Cold Day In The Park, even Quintet felt like an Altman movie despite being an incomprehensible mess. Even though A Perfect Couple doesen't feel like an Altman movie it is still a perfectly fine film... just very average.

A Perfect Couple's message is that there is no such thing as a perfect couple and that differences are a part of what attract people to each other. I can agree with the message but it seems like the two protagonists are different to the…

Very different, quirky and uncommon Altman rom-com that features Paul Dooley as a put-upon man-child and Marta Heflin as a singer in an Up With People/Electric Mayhem-style rock band unhappy in her station in life. As is the director’s wont, the film explores unexpected places and situations that bely the genre’s typical paint-by-number plot points. Reader’s Note: A PERFECT COUPLE has a LOT of 70s musical performance in it: a couple of the songs are good but a lot of them are, ahem, too much. 

Dooley is a treat here as an overeager, inexperienced forty-something lovelorn while the excellent Heflin is unsure and tentative, not entirely comfortable that she wants love or to be loved. JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR star Ted…