Modern Romance is the most daring Albert Brooks film, and the funniest. He plays a film editor who is insanely jealous of his beautiful girlfriend. Even though the film is hilarious, it shares a similar dynamic with Raging Bull, which came out a few months before Modern Romance -- it focuses on a man who imagines his girlfriend is cheating on him, and yet it turns out not to be true. But even so, Brooks' character drives himself crazy with conjecture, imagining the worst. It is the flip side of trusting a girlfriend too much and then finding out she is sleeping with everyone.
Modern Romance also reminds me of another dark drama, The Gambler from 1974, in which the protagonist is smart and charming but nonetheless seeks to sabotage himself with bad behavior. Why do people destroy themselves? Some people don't want to be happy, it seems. To get comedy out of this shows the genius of Brooks.
Brooks' character, Robert Cole, is a successful film editor. We see him at work, and he is very creative and good at what he does. He is a control freak at work, making the most minute changes in the film he is working on, and he applies this same desire to control (to in effect "direct") his personal life. In a measure, he succeeds, because he is able to get his girlfriend to ultimately go along with what he wants, despite her misgivings -- and that's another issue to explore, why women fall in love with insecure or manipulative men and put up with their difficult personalities.
Brooks is very brave in playing such a difficult character, and there is nothing warm and fuzzy about Robert Cole. Brooks never tries to get the audience to love him, whereas actors like Steve Martin or Robin Williams would try to take the hard edge off and make him lovable.
Also impressive is Brooks spends a great deal of screen time by himself, talking on the phone, talking to himself, driving himself crazy and driving past his girlfriend's house, in effect stalking. He spends as much time alone as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. To turn all of this into comedy is a measure of Brooks' unique genius.
Modern Romance also reminds me of another dark drama, The Gambler from 1974, in which the protagonist is smart and charming but nonetheless seeks to sabotage himself with bad behavior. Why do people destroy themselves? Some people don't want to be happy, it seems. To get comedy out of this shows the genius of Brooks.
Brooks' character, Robert Cole, is a successful film editor. We see him at work, and he is very creative and good at what he does. He is a control freak at work, making the most minute changes in the film he is working on, and he applies this same desire to control (to in effect "direct") his personal life. In a measure, he succeeds, because he is able to get his girlfriend to ultimately go along with what he wants, despite her misgivings -- and that's another issue to explore, why women fall in love with insecure or manipulative men and put up with their difficult personalities.
Brooks is very brave in playing such a difficult character, and there is nothing warm and fuzzy about Robert Cole. Brooks never tries to get the audience to love him, whereas actors like Steve Martin or Robin Williams would try to take the hard edge off and make him lovable.
Also impressive is Brooks spends a great deal of screen time by himself, talking on the phone, talking to himself, driving himself crazy and driving past his girlfriend's house, in effect stalking. He spends as much time alone as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. To turn all of this into comedy is a measure of Brooks' unique genius.