It started out with such promise. I love Brooks' humor. Most people I know don't, but the idea that this yuppie was going to engineer a "find yourself" tour of America for himself and his unwilling wife in a Winnebago held out the promise of a rich minefield of comedy to come. After Julie Hagerty's character loses the entire nest egg in their first stop in Vegas, I couldn't watch the movie anymore and I walked out by the time they got to the Grand Canyon.
I don't know if it was just my disappointment at Albert Brooks' use of such an obvious situational device as the loss of all the money to set up the rest of the film, or my own sense of unquenchable murderous rage at the wife for having been so weak and stupid to lose every dime and completely undermine the rest of their lives, but I could not watch another frame of this movie, and have not gone back to it to this day. Once you lose heart, once you can no longer maintain the willing suspension of disbelief, you are through with a film. "Defending Your Life" was so brilliant. This was just awful.
I don't know if it was just my disappointment at Albert Brooks' use of such an obvious situational device as the loss of all the money to set up the rest of the film, or my own sense of unquenchable murderous rage at the wife for having been so weak and stupid to lose every dime and completely undermine the rest of their lives, but I could not watch another frame of this movie, and have not gone back to it to this day. Once you lose heart, once you can no longer maintain the willing suspension of disbelief, you are through with a film. "Defending Your Life" was so brilliant. This was just awful.