The Lonely Guy (1984)

Larry (Steve Martin) comes home one day to find his girlfriend, Danielle (Robyn Douglass) in bed with Raul (Richard Delmonte). She tells him to leave, and he does, taking out the trash on his way out, as she instructed him to do.

Fifteen minutes after being dumped, he runs into Jack (Steve Lawrence), who's out on a stroll with his wife and his girlfriend. He tells Larry that he's heard about Larry's break-up (the one that happened just 15 minutes ago), but not to worry. Danielle has already broken up with Raul. Now she's dating a rock band.

It's that kind of movie.

Anyway, Larry ends up in the park. He's taking up the right side of a park bench, and here comes Warren (Charles Grodin). He's in the same position as Larry, but he seems a little wiser to what happens next. Warren takes up the left side of the park bench, and the two become fast friends.

I love Charles Grodin. Mainly, I remember him for the intentionally awkward segments he would do with Letterman on Late Night.

In terms of his movie catalog, I'm looking at it right now He played Aarfy Aardvark in Catch-22 (1970). He was also in Rosemary's Baby and Ishtar. I wouldn't call his movie career "robust" or "memorable," but in The Lonely Guy, he plays the part of Warren perfectly.

Warren is simply another lonely guy.

I have a feeling that many of the Larry and Warren scenes are pure improv, and it's fun to watch Martin and Grodin play off one another, mirror each other's tone and demeanor, and so on.

While The Jerk was just too stupid for me when I just rewatched it, I have to admit The Lonely Guy is equally as stupid, but for whatever reason, I loved it. Maybe it's just a matter of certain movies hitting you a certain way at certain times, but when Roger Ebert writes about comedy "working on all cylinders," this movie is an example of that for me. Everything works. (Funny that Ebert didn't like this one and gave it thumbs down, while Siskel thought "everything worked" and gave it thumbs up.)

When I started going deeper into the Steve Martin catalog, I wondered about obscure movies like The Lonely Guy. I had never heard of this one. Would it or any of the other obscure films be "good," or is there a reason that all the best known and most popular Steve Martin movies are best known and most popular? I had a feeling that any unknown movie would be hard pressed to compete with Planes, Trains, and Automobile, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. But I would rank The Lonely Guy right up there with those.

A true "hidden gem" in the Steve Martin catalog.

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