neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Never Again
	Eric Schaeffer Jeffrey Tambor, Jill Clayburgh, Caroline Aaron, Bill Duke, Sandy Duncan, Michael McKean 2001		Isn't it time that someone made a bawdy sex comedy about a nice, unglamorous, middle-aged couple trying to find happiness and crazy love in a New York City full of neurotic, lonely-hearted strivers? No? Tough. Here it is, complete with embarrassing bedroom shenanigans. On the plus side, "Never Again" has proficient performances by Jeffrey Tambor (TV's "The Larry Sanders Show") and Jill Clayburgh ("An Unmarried Woman"). On the minus side, it's full of cheap-shot jokes and casual vulgarity. Tambor is Christopher, a bachelor, pest exterminator and sometime jazz pianist; Clayburgh is Grace, a long-celibate single mom. The actors strive to elevate banal or silly material, but the film flails around, hoping to squeeze comedy from tapped-out sources such as midgets, sex toys and gay pick-up bars. Whether the whiny relationship conversations are between Grace and her pals or Christopher and his bass player (Bill Duke), they'd be smarter and wittier in a Woody Allen film. With Caroline Aaron and Michael McKean.