Starting Over

Delivery Time: 7 to 15 Working Days Format: DVD Imported: USA

Phil Potter (Reynolds) is a low-key, contented magazine writer who tries to put his life back together after his wife (Bergen) opts for independence as a singer-songwriter. Wacky nursery school teacher (Clayburgh) tries to help him surmount the emotional hurdles, but it's rough as he's still hung up on his ex-wife.
Until Boogie Nights, this film had stood for almost two decades as the best performance Burt Reynolds had ever given. In a criminal oversight, he was denied an Oscar nomination, perhaps because it came in the middle of his action-movie winning streak. Directed by Alan Pakula from a script by James L. Brooks, the film cast Reynolds as a newly divorced man struggling to cope with single life in the city. But a blind date (initially misconstrued by the woman as a mugging) leads to renewed hope in romance when he and his new lady friend (Jill Clayburgh) actually seem right for each other. But before he can make a commitment, his flighty ex-wife (Candice Bergen) bounces back into his life to make him miserable all over again with her flirtatious indecisiveness. Wonderfully acted and observed; a highpoint is Bergen's attempt (as the world's least talented singer-songwriter) to seduce Reynolds with one of her off-key tunes. --Marshall Fine