David Frankel Movies

The once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between star Gene Wilder and director Leonard Nimoy resulted in the charmingly haphazard and anachronistic Funny About Love. Wilder plays political cartoonist Duffy Bergman, who falls in love with much-younger Meg (Christine Lahti) during a book-signing session. Once married, the old "clash of careers" bugaboo arises: Meg wants to continue working as a chef in a fancy New York restaurant, while Duffy would prefer that she think about starting a family. When it seems as though Meg may be incapable of bearing children, the self-involved Duffy impregnates earthy college coed Daphne (Mary Stuart Masterson). How a happy ending can grow from this complication is a puzzlement. Funny About Love was based--extremely loosely--on a speech once delivered by Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene. The laughs tend to be sporadic, though Stephen Toblowsky scores high marks as a jocular fertility doctor. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi