Beyond Therapy

Name: Beyond Therapy
Genre: Comedy
Released: 2005-11-20T15:00:08-08:00
Rating: 25

Critics Consensus

No consensus yet.

32%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 1,218

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Beyond Therapy Photos

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Movie Info

Based on the play by Christopher Durang, Robert Altman's Beyond Therapy is a comedy set in New York City but filmed in Paris, where Altman was living at the time. Arrogant Bruce (Jeff Goldblum) grows bored with his live-in lover, Bob (Christopher Guest), so he looks for a change by placing an ad in the personals. He meets neurotic Prudence (Julie Hagerty) at a French restaurant and they prove to be a terrible match-up. Then Bruce goes to see his therapist, Charlotte (Glenda Jackson), who has a strange disorder herself. In the same building, Prudence goes to see her own bizarre therapist, Stuart (Tom Conti), who believes in sex with his patients. Charlotte and Stuart also have an arrangement where they meet for anonymous sexual trysts. Meanwhile, Bob's mother (Genevieve Page) is worried about her son's relationship with Bruce and she interferes with everything.

Rating:

R (adult situations/language)
Genre:

Comedy
Directed By:

Robert Altman
Written By:

Robert Altman, Christopher Durang
In Theaters:

Feb 27, 1987 wide
On Disc/Streaming:

Dec 2, 2003
Runtime:

93 minutes
Studio:

New World Video

Cast

Glenda Jackson
as Charlotte

Tom Conti
as Stuart

Jeff Goldblum
as Bruce

Julie Hagerty
as Prudence

Christopher Guest
as Bob

Geneviève Page
as Zizi

Cris Campion
as Andrew

Sandrine Dumas
as Cindy

Bertrand Bonvoisin
as Le Gerant

Nicole Evans
as The Cashier

Louis-Marie Taillefer
as Le Chef

Matthew Lesniak
as Mr. Bean

Laure Killing
as Charlie

Gilbert Blin
as Waiter

Vincent Longuemare
as Waiter

Françoise Armel
as Zizi's Friend

View All

Critic Reviews for Beyond Therapy

All Critics (8) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (2) | Rotten (6)

There's no special logic at work. The performances are good, but the film has been assembled without an overriding sense of humor and style.

May 20, 2003 | Rating: 2/5

Vincent Canby
New York Times
Top Critic
It's a movie in which every scene must have seemed like a lot of fun at the time, but, when they're edited together, there's no pattern to the movie, nothing to build toward, no reason for us to care. It's all behavior.

Jan 1, 2000 | Rating: 1/4 | Full Review…

Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic
He needs more characters to play with than Durang's analyst's couches and restaurant trysts can provide, and simply hasn't the body count to fill in the vacant frames.

Jan 1, 2000 | Full Review…

Pat Graham
Chicago Reader
Top Critic
Robert Altman adapted Christopher Durang's play for this peculiar comedy that can't ever seem to find its rhythm.

May 26, 2006 | Rating: 2/4 | Full Review…

Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

View All Critic Reviews (8)

Audience Reviews for Beyond Therapy

May 07, 2011

In the 1980s Robert Altman released a string of films that were based on popular plays, "Beyond Therapy" was one of them. While the film has some laugh out loud moments, some very funny dialogue and extremely spirited and zany performances, Altman's lack of narrative focus ultimately hurts the film. Altman's directorial voice is lost here, because in all honesty, this seems like a direct copy of a Woody Allen picture. There isn't much originality to speak of. Plus, with a film that contains such an array of wackos, you need something for the audience to ground themselves in, and "Beyond Therapy" has none of that- no every man, no coherent arc. This is a funny but extremely unfocused and messy film.

Steven C Super Reviewer