Looking for Mr. Goodbar

Directed by Richard Brooks, Looking for Mr. Goodbar follows Diane Keaton’s Theresa as she attempts to balance her new career as a schoolteacher with a dangerous penchant for cruising singles bars. Filmmaker Brooks, working from his own screenplay, delivers an exceedingly (and sometimes excessively) deliberate character study that benefits from Keaton’s superb (and completely convincing) turn as the sympathetic protagonist, and it’s clear, certainly, that Brooks does a solid job of eliciting equally strong work from an eclectic supporting cast that includes Richard Gere, William Atherton, and Tom Berenger. There’s little doubt, then, that Looking for Mr. Goodbar‘s overall impact is hindered substantially by a meandering, hit-and-miss midsection, with the second act’s episodic bent essentially preventing the picture from attaining any real sense of forward momentum – which ensures, ultimately, that the movie is only effective (and affecting) in fits and starts. By the time the admittedly harrowing final scene rolls around, Looking for Mr. Goodbar has cemented its place as a just-compelling-enough endeavor that works best as a showcase for Keaton’s thoroughly impressive performance.

**1/2 out of ****

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