Ira and Abby (2006)
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Reviews Counted: 42
Fresh: 29 | Rotten: 13
Ira & Abby overcomes the somewhat clichéd plot with witty dialogue and earnest performances.
Average Rating: 6.5/10
Critic Reviews: 14
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 4
Ira & Abby overcomes the somewhat clichéd plot with witty dialogue and earnest performances.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 2,877
Movie Info
Love at first sight has some interesting repercussions a few months down the line in this offbeat romantic comedy. Ira Black (Chris Messina) is a wildly neurotic thirtysomething who can't get his life in gear -- the son of a pair of therapists, Arlene (Judith Light) and Seymour (Robert Klein), Ira still hasn't finished his grad school dissertation, he's been in therapy for 12 years, and can't bring himself to settle down with his longtime girlfriend Lea (Maddie Corman). When both Lea and his
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Cast
-
Chris Messina
Ira Black -
Jennifer Westfeldt
Abby Willoughby -
Frances Conroy
Lynne Willoughby -
Fred Willard
Michael Willoughby -
Judith Light
Arlene Black -
Robert Klein
Seymour Black -
Maddie Corman
Lea -
Jason Alexander
Dr. Saperstein -
David Margulies
Dr. Friedman -
Donna Murphy
Dr. Goldman -
Chris Parnell
Dr. Silverberg -
Darrell Hammond
Dr. Rosenblum -
Kali Rocha
Tracey -
Peter Hirsch
Dr. Goldberg -
Ilana Levine
Dr. Finkelstein -
Brad Bellamy
Henry -
Marylouise Burke
Janice -
-
Kevin Sussman
Lenny -
Matthew Del Negro
Seth
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All Critics (43) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (29) | Rotten (13) | DVD (3)
The movie benefits from an exceptionally strong line-up of supporting characters beautifully played by a top-notch cast.
Top CriticIra & Abby has plenty of sharp details, mostly verbal, and it gives old pros and newer faces a chance to show off their poker-faced comic wiles.
Ira & Abby is like its characters: nice with a lot of problems.
It's sunny, oh-so-New-York and ever-so cute, and Messina and Westfeldt, under-used actors, are equally beguiling.
Ira & Abby, in its breezy, low-key way, will make audiences happy -- something [director] Westfeldt already knows how to do.
It was all so fresh and funny -- when Woody Allen did it.
An odd love poem for cynics who have thrown sentimentality into the garbage.
Robert Carey directs his cast with zest and the film plays its laughs with a sense of gentle sardonic smirk that makes it inoffensive yet tart.
Ira & Abby may drive you into therapy, but you'll be chuckling all the way.
The steady addition of more and more characters served to fragment what could have been a charming romantic comedy.
Ira and Abby may be a divorce comedy, but the perfect marriage of two comically inspired minds, director Robert Cary (Anything But Love) and writer/star Jennifer Wesfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein) is irresistible.
"Ira & Abby" doesn't throw out the romantic comedy rule book, but it occasionally shuffles the pages a little for comic effect.
In the season that has seen such loathsome films as Good Luck Chuck and The Heartbreak Kid, Ira & Abby is remarkable proof that a compelling and funny love story can appear on celluloid.
On paper, Ira and Abby sounds like a sitcom (in fact, it sounds like Dharma & Greg). But intelligence and fine acting shoves it up several notches.
It spends so much time reminding of how quaint and kooky it is throughout that you may find yourself pulling out your wallet or purse and offering it some of your hard-earned money if it will agree to just simmer down and go away
Ira & Abby is a charming film, but it's nearly great when it settles down and causally explores life's often strange complications.
The group-therapy scene that wraps it up brings those substantial themes together in a way that's uproariously funny.
The result is light but surprisingly fresh, and even a bit insightful.
Offers some smiles and rueful insights about the vicissitudes of love, but its almost slavish imitation of the Woody Allen formula ultimately makes it seem stale.
A mixed bag with a lot of cutesy awfulness to wade through, but the acerbic ending is enough of a punchline to suggest that Westfeldt understands what a joke this kind of film can be.
Audience Reviews for Ira and Abby
Super Reviewer
This film is remarkably uneven. It is often jaunty and farcical, but there are moments of true pathos that demand we take the action more seriously than we had been prepared for. There is also great truth in the moments when, for example, Seymour says, "It's impossible to ever truly know anybody." But immediately after we get a ridiculous scene involving everybody's therapists and people carrying on ad infinitum. The primary eponymous story offers some fairly charming moments, but the supporting stories often have little to do with the main action and only distract from the people we want to care about.
The performances by Chris Messina and Jennifer Westfeldt (especially Westfeldt) often make their outlandish characters believable, and by the end of the film, I wished I knew them better and got to spend more time in their presence.
Overall, there's a lot to like about Ira and Abby, but not much to like about Ira and Abby because the film as whole suffers from too much business and not enough substance.
Super Reviewer
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Movie: ID: 611219176 Title: Ira and Abby Release Date: 2006-06-23 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
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Foreign Titles
- Ira & Abby (DE)
- Ira & Abby (UK)
