Aw, I love this movie.

I realize I'm a cult of one. The conventional wisdom about 1983's Romantic Comedy is that it's lightweight and glib, with a singularly unlikeable lead character. Whatever. I guess lightweight and glib lines mouthed by an unlikeable lead actor just appeal to me.

Mary Steenburgen plays Phoebe, a sweet, rumpled, diffident writer wanna-be who is teamed with Jason, a celebrated, sophisticated and egocentric playwright who has suddenly lost his touch when it comes to hitmaking. Played by Dudley Moore he is a bit of a pill, but that doesn't bother me because I suspect that successful and gifted playwrights probably are more than a little difficult to get along with.

Jason's agent hopes that having a writing partner will give his career a jumpstart, and it works. Phoebe and Jason go from being unlikely writing partners to close friends to a kind of heterosexual Will and Grace -- more than friends but less than lovers. As months turn to years, everyone can see they're in love but them. (Shades of Olivia and Elliott on SVU.) Unfortunately they never seem to be single at the same time. It's never illicit; one very sweet scene shows Jason's wife affectionately rubbing a sleepy Phoebe's feet because she fears her husband's other partner is cold. It's about fate and timing and romance and longing and I like it. If it happens to turn up on a cable channel near you some night, give it a try.