ThiefHott Too much of everything

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

jmillerdp Odd, very scattered movie about a woman who goes down a road to ruin through random hook-ups, drugs, and encounters with violent men.Screenwriter/Director Richard Brooks has done very good work before ("In Cold Blood"). But, here, the narrative is all over the place. The film begins with Diane Keaton's character having waking fantasies, but they are awkwardly edited in. Brooks then has real problems in constructing the story throughout.There was a novel, and I have no idea if it had the same problems or not. Regardless, Brooks should have thought this out a lot better.Diane Keaton is fine in the lead. The acting otherwise ranges from seriously overcooked to passive-aggressive. The result of the writing and overacting leads to melodrama, where the movie could have told a much more interesting story.For instance, the guy playing Keaton's father is this borderline-psychotic Catholic character who is endlessly screaming and yelling at his daughters when they don't toe the line according to his hard-right religious ideals.A very odd disappointment that could, and should, have been a lot better.Plus, you can see what's going to happen by film's end coming a billion miles away!**** (4 Out of 10 Stars)

swanagangenevee Not really. I have heard that there are no prints of this Movie although it is considered a classic. It is. Diane Keaton gives a powerful performance as a gifted teacher who frequents seedy bars and picks up men to one-night stands. Scary. Scarier is when she really picks up the wrong one.What a lot of people may miss in the movie is that Diane's character has a congenital medical condition (Scoliosis I believe) and does not want to marry a man and have a child with it. Pretty mild condition in my opinion to live your life this risky. She walks with what she thinks she pulls off as a little switch, but her untimely partner recognizes it as a mild limp because she did have surgery for it as a child.Her array of men are somewhat handsome losers with Richard Gere, John Travolta and Tom Berenger. All I want to do is see it again and have it in my collection!

migca I saw "Mr. Goodbar" at a film festival screening, several years after it's initial release. In some ways (none of them good), this movie has haunted me ever since. I can still recall feeling strangely perturbed and confused as the film neared it's final minutes. I guess I expected that the ending would somehow magically bring the preceding grimy and occasionally chaotic events into some sort of focus.All I got from that ending was a brutal stomach ache similar to the lingering pain induced by a cheap sucker punch to the gut. I will readily admit to having gained no further understanding or insight into this film over the years. I still can't imagine why anyone would make a film like this, or what possible value or entertainment viewers derived from it.For me, Diane Keaton's performance is the only thing in the movie that keeps it from getting the lowest vote. That she managed to project some warmth and humanity from such a crudely drawn, relentlessly sad, and gratuitously self-destructive character, only made the ending that much more horrific and senseless. It's easily one of the worst experiences I've ever had in a movie theater.

JoeytheBrit Probably the biggest problem with this movie – other than its insistence that all men are either worthless sexual predators or pathetic, near-impotent panderers – is the fact that it has aged so badly. In an age when a small army of women under 30 seem hell-bent on doing all they can to turn their livers and septums to mush in as short a time as possible, Diane Keaton's Theresa Dunn no longer comes across as somebody out of the ordinary.Diane Keaton gives a performance that is by turns both sensitive and irritating as her character revolves around her schizophrenic lifestyle. As a child, Dunn was encased in plaster, a result of scoliosis, and it seems that this is what compels her to take so many risks in her effort to find the kind of freedom she was denied as a kid – both by her spell in traction and by a harsh, overbearing Catholic upbringing. She is full of love, as indicated by her relationship with the deaf children she teaches, but gives it in all the wrong ways, leading to encounters with equally warped characters. One of these is Richard Gere in the role that first brought him to Hollywood's attention and which serves as a kind of template for the role of Jesse in Jim McBride's ill-fated remake of Breathless. The other is Tom Berenger, a borderline psychopath tortured by his own homosexuality. Both are characters no right-thinking adult would want to get involved with, but Keaton's self-destructive personality draws her to them, and while you want her to break free from her sleazy night-life a part of you can't help thinking she's going to get what she deserves.The problem with Dunn is that she engages the viewers' sympathy in her straight persona then keeps pushing them away with her self-indulgent excesses and sometimes callous treatment of those who love her most. Combined with the relentlessly depressing atmosphere of impending tragedy that hangs over the entire film, this makes Looking for Mr. Goodbar a difficult film to enjoy (or even watch) and one to which many people wouldn't wish to return.