Review of Kiss Me Goodbye

This is an Americanization of the popular Brazilian film DONA FLOR AND HER TWO HUSBANDS (1976), which I own in a rather dismal print recorded off French Cable TV but haven't yet watched. Though a minor effort by this director, as a romantic comedy/fantasy – especially for a title emanating from the 1980s – it's fair, aided in no small measure by a good cast: Sally Field as the woman torn between two loves; James Caan as ghostly husband No. 1, a star Broadway choreographer; Jeff Bridges as her current "boring" intended, an Egyptologist (ironically, he gets the best lines); Claire Trevor as Fields' outspoken mum, who adores Caan but can't stomach Bridges; and Paul Dooley as Bridges' assistant, who also happens to be an ex-priest. The film is a pleasant enough trifle but, obviously, a long way behind the Noel Coward/David Lean BLITHE SPIRIT (1945) – which had one husband and two 'sparring' wives – or, for that matter, the innumerable screwball comedy classics (usually featuring Cary Grant as the husband who won't give up his bride and eventually gets her back) of the late 1930s and early 40s. To get back to the highlights: Bridges embarrasses Field at an isolated resort (to which Caan is also 'invited') by pretending to see himself a former acquaintance; when another vacationer witnessing the scene helpfully admits that she can barely make her out too, Bridges blows his top and insults her in front of the woman's perplexed husband! During the wedding rehearsal, Bridges brings Dooley along to drive away Caan's ghost once and for all: asking him to remain inconspicuous throughout, the would-be exorcist immediately begins loudly spouting Latin chants, with Bridges snapping: "You call that being nonchalant?!" Finally, during this same climactic sequence, Trevor's amateur electrician husband gets locked in the attic, the door to which is guarded by their pet dog; believing the man's pleas for help to be coming from the latter, Dooley alerts Bridges that Caan's ghost has possessed the canine…with the result that the Egyptologist then has a hard time explaining to the guests his attempt to strangle it!