zetes What the Hell was that? I'm normally an Altman defender in all cases - I'm a fan of stuff like That Cold Day in the Park, Quintet and Pret-a-Porter - and I've never seen him as a hit-or-miss director who has directed half masterpieces and half flops, as his reputation tends to go. But this is truly a disaster! It's based on a stage play by Christopher Durang, who also adapted this screenplay with Altman. I just can't imagine anyone sitting in the audience watching this garbage thinking, "Oh, man, that would make a great movie!" unless the play was significantly different on stage. I kind of doubt it, though. It has such a peculiar energy, and it's not much like anything else Altman made. It feels like something pretentious people might have enjoyed on stage, more likely in the 60s than in the 80s, because it's just so odd. I'm usually a fan of odd, but this one almost made me violently angry at times. Jeff Goldblum stars as a bisexual man living with his boyfriend (Christopher Guest), but trying to branch out into women. He meets Julie Hagerty on a blind date, and they immediately hate each other. After therapy sessions and a second blind date (they both change their ads slightly but end up together again), they hit it off, much to Guest's chagrin. Every character in the movie is constantly going to their therapist (the two therapist characters are played by Glenda Jackson and Tom Conti). No one acts like a human being in this film, just weird simulacra making faces at each other. There's hardly a laugh in it, and the actors universally embarrass themselves. Better off completely forgotten.

evanston_dad I've been having my own little Altman revival over the past months, watching all of his available movies in chronological order, both his masterpieces and his duds. I'm up to 1987, and I think I may have finally found it -- that elusive thing known as Robert Altman's absolutely worst film.If you know about Altman, you know that all of his movies were an experiment to a greater or lesser extent and that some of them misfired dismally. In re-watching them with a fresh eye, I've found that none (not even some really bad ones, like "A Wedding", "Quintet", or "Popeye") misfired quite as egregiously as "Beyond Therapy". A farcical romp lampooning modern-day (for the time) romance, sexual preferences, neurotics and the analysts who are crazier than they are, "Beyond Therapy" has nothing to recommend it. The two leads, Jeff Goldblum and Julie Hagerty, make their characters instantly unlikable and never recover. Tom Conti and Glenda Jackson are probably the best members of the cast, as two whacked out therapists, but the parts they're given to play feel random and arbitrary. Christopher Guest basically plays the petulant gay man he would reprise so classically ten years later in "Waiting for Guffman".I don't know how Christopher Durang's stage play would read in a different context. It seems paper thin judging by this version, but knowing Altman, I have a feeling he dealt with the source material liberally, and who knows how much of Durang's original play remains. This film certainly has Altman's footprints all over it, and in this case that's not a good thing.Grade: F

finitodistampare I like Altman 's movies "the player""Short cuts " "Gosford park" , etc. But I watched this movie in his premiere in Spain ages ago and it was a comedy( so the promotion said) , so the movie poster said and a comedy for intelligent people bla bla bla This movie is not funny at all , the dialog have no spark , you don't care about the characters at all and I remember I did not laugh in all the movie . If you ever go to a comedy and did not laugh at all you will understand what I'm talking about. It's like torture . Altman is an amazing director, he is capable of making great movies like "The Player " or incredible flops like this one .

gftbiloxi Christopher Durang's off-Broadway play BEYOND THERAPY was a triumph, and Durang himself worked with director Robert Altman to bring it to the screen. The result is a truly remarkable film--beautifully played by a first-rate cast, quick paced, provocative, romantic, and very, very funny--that is frequently attacked for not being a line-for-line translation of the stage original.Unlike some Altman films, BEYOND THERAPY actually offers storyline. When Prudence and Bruce (Julie Hagerty and Jeff Goldblum) meet for a blind date the result is disastrous--not surprising, when Bruce casually notes that he is bisexual and living with lover Bob (Christopher Guest.) Prudence and Bruce rush back to their therapists (Tom Conti and Glenda Jackson, respectively) for advice... but their therapists are nuttier than they are, and soon they, Bob, Bob's mother Zizi (Genevieve Page), and the entire waitstaff of a French restaurant are dragged into the fray.Durang's script adaptation and Altman's wall-of-sound take on it is wickedly funny, and so many memorable lines ("My mother is NOT a transvestite!") bounce through the film that the effect is absolutely dizzying; the sound design is also memorable for the constant car crashes and china shattering that occurs in the background, a metaphor for collision of characters happening before our eyes. The entire cast is absolutely first rate (Hagerty, Goldblum, and Guest have never been better), and Altman guides them with a very sure hand.Altman's vision always divides viewers: you either like his films or you do not. Although BEYOND THERAPY offers a relatively small cast in a cohesive story, it is actually one of Altman's most visually and aurally kaleidoscopic films, and it is unlikely to convert those who find his style confusing and frustrating. But that said, this is a must-have film for any Altman fan, a truly enjoyable romantic comedy with a razor sharp script and a joyous style. Strongly, strongly recommended.Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer