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Defending Your Life (1991)'s comments
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Comments 1 - 5 of 5
MM
Fantastic film. One of the greatest rom-coms, up their with Groundhog Day and When Harry Met Sally.frankqb
A movie that is consistently chuckle-worthy and at times laugh-out loud hilarious. It is also the first movie that made me cry in years.Interesting, intelligent, and still very accessible. Highly recommended for a nice light romantic comedy about life and death.
Elvislaw
I agree as well. Totally not my normal kind of movie but one that is well put together with a charming story and characters. Well worth a watch.tomsalad
I agree...it's definitely an underappreciated little gem of a movie!Siskoid
What does Albert Brooks' Defending Your Life have in common with Dune? Fear is the mind killer. Or so his areligious imagining of the afterlife would have it. And playing to his anxious, insecure persona, Brooks is in a sort of hell as he enters Judgment City where his life will be examined to see if he can "move forward" or be sent back for another tour on Earth. People judging him is his personal nightmare, so great! There is such attention to detail in a Brooks movie - each line is given the proper attention, each character has something pleasurable about them, but in this case, the world-building is excellent too. Brooks has an answer for everything, if at the very least that an answer shouldn't be forthcoming. There's innate chemistry between him and his amusing defense attorney (Rip Torn) and between him and Meryl Streep, a veritable soul mate come too late. Funny AND thought-provoking, Defending Your Life becomes a conversation piece as soon as the closing credits hit, so do watch it with other people and listen in as they share just what moments of their lives would be examined, but also what theories they come up with about the more mysterious moments and elliptical lines. The more I think about it, the more I like it (especially the WHY characters do what they do), and the movie offers an afterlife that's actually hopeful as well as absurd. The universe could do worse.