Save your time and rent the original

Dave-in-Hayward

I loved the original.  This remake was just painful. Try though he might Jeff Daniels could not carry off the roll of Elliot with any  degree of charm, humor or frenetic energy that Richard Dreyfuss made work so well in the original. Matthew Perry MIGHT have been a better casting choice for Elliot, but it's hard to follow a classic.

And though Patricia Heaton is much easier on the eye than Marsha Mason ever was, she seemed to be phoning in her part as well.  Marsha sold the part of a  hopeless romantic who'd been dumped one too many times.  Patricia seemed to be acting like it was one of her Albertson's commercials.

I really tried to cheer for this remake, but it just didn't hold a candle to the  original.

score /10

Dave-in-Hayward 19 January 2004

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0931174/