Albert Brooks seems to have made a career out of writing, and starring in, successful small films about a man (played by Brooks) who has some self-esteem issues. By small films I mean they can be shot in any city, don't require special effects, and use very good actors but ones who are not fantastically expensive at the time of the filming. I usually find his movies enjoyable, but not "rolling in the aisles with laughter" funny. (Very few shows cause me to laugh out loud, and fewer crack me up the way some of Alec Guinness' classic comedies did.)
This film is no exception. It is not the funniest or wittiest film of our time, but it is funny, witty, insightful and points out the humor of the human condition. In this case the story is about a writer (Brooks) who has recently been divorced, again, and is trying to understand why his marriages, and relationships with women in general, have been so unsuccessful. He realizes that the common factor in his marriages is that he marries women who are not supportive of him; they don't see him as a successful author. He comes up with the idea that his problem with women stem from his relationship with his mother (played delightfully by multi-talented Debbie Reynolds), who always finds fault with him but dotes on his younger brother (played by Rob Morrow), a sports agent with a wife and children. So he decides to try an experiment of moving back into his old room in his mother's house to try to learn more about why they interact the way they do.
Woody Allen also writes comedies that are strong on character, but Allen seems to me to be on a higher tier, with more complex characters and deeper situations. I don't see Brooks as the West Coast Allen.
This film is no exception. It is not the funniest or wittiest film of our time, but it is funny, witty, insightful and points out the humor of the human condition. In this case the story is about a writer (Brooks) who has recently been divorced, again, and is trying to understand why his marriages, and relationships with women in general, have been so unsuccessful. He realizes that the common factor in his marriages is that he marries women who are not supportive of him; they don't see him as a successful author. He comes up with the idea that his problem with women stem from his relationship with his mother (played delightfully by multi-talented Debbie Reynolds), who always finds fault with him but dotes on his younger brother (played by Rob Morrow), a sports agent with a wife and children. So he decides to try an experiment of moving back into his old room in his mother's house to try to learn more about why they interact the way they do.
Woody Allen also writes comedies that are strong on character, but Allen seems to me to be on a higher tier, with more complex characters and deeper situations. I don't see Brooks as the West Coast Allen.