''Bye Bye Love'' is a 1995 American

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film that deals with the central issue of divorce. It was directed by

Sam Weisman Sam Weisman is an American film director. He has directed the films '' D2: The Mighty Ducks'', '' Bye Bye Love'', ''George of the Jungle'', '' The Out-of-Towners'', '' What's the Worst That Could Happen?'', and '' Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star' ...

and written by

Gary David Goldberg Gary David Goldberg (June 25, 1944 – June 22, 2013) was an American writer and producer for television and film. Goldberg was best known for his work on ''Family Ties'' (1982–89), ''Spin City'' (1996–2002), and his semi-autobiographical seri ...

and

Brad Hall William Bradford Hall (born March 21, 1958) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is best known as a ''Weekend Update'' news anchor on ''Saturday Night Live'' and for creating the sitcoms ''The Single Guy'' and ''Watching Ellie''. H ...

. It stars

Matthew Modine Matthew Avery Modine (born March 22, 1959) is an American actor and filmmaker, who rose to prominence through his role as U.S. Marine Private/Sergeant J.T. "Joker" Davis in ''Full Metal Jacket''. His other film roles include the title character ...

Randy Quaid Randy Randall Rudy Quaid (born October 1, 1950) is an American actor known for his roles in both serious drama and light comedy. He was nominated for an Academy Award, BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award for his role in ''The Last Detail'' i ...

Paul Reiser Paul Reiser (; born March 30, 1956) is an American actor, comedian, and television writer. He is known for his roles as Michael Taylor in the 1980s sitcom ''My Two Dads'', Paul Buchman in the NBC sitcom ''Mad About You'', Modell in the 1982 fi ...

Janeane Garofalo Janeane Marie Garofalo ( ; born September 28, 1964) is an American comedian, actress, and former co-host on the now-defunct Air America Radio's ''The Majority Report''. Garofalo began her career as a stand-up comedian and became a cast member on ...

Amy Brenneman Amy Frederica Brenneman (born June 22, 1964) is an American actress and producer. She worked extensively in television, coming to prominence as Detective Janice Licalsi in the ABC police drama series ''NYPD Blue'' (1993–1994). Brenneman nex ...

Eliza Dushku Eliza Patricia Dushku (; born December 30, 1980) is an American actress. She is best known for starring as Faith in the supernatural drama series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1998–2003) and its spin-off series ''Angel'' (2000–2003). She als ...

Rob Reiner Robert Norman Reiner (born March 6, 1947) is an American actor and filmmaker. As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence with the role of Michael "Meathead" Stivic on the CBS sitcom ''All in the Family'' (1971–1979), a performanc ...

Amber Benson Amber Nicole Benson (born January 8, 1977) is an American actress, singer, writer, director, and producer. She is best known for her role as Tara Maclay on the TV series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1999–2002), and has also directed, produced ...

, and

Lindsay Crouse Lindsay Ann Crouse is a retired American actress. She made her Broadway debut in the 1972 revival of ''Much Ado About Nothing'' and appeared in her first film in 1976 in ''All the President's Men''. For her role in the 1984 film ''Places in the ...

. Production costs were heavily underwritten by

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

product placement Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of th ...

. Goldberg and Hall stated that they included in the script several fictionalized accounts of events that had happened to divorced friends of theirs. Also acting in the film were

Jayne Brook Jayne Brook (born Jane Anderson) is an American actress, best known for her roles as Dr. Diane Grad on the medical drama ''Chicago Hope'', as a series regular for five of the show's six seasons, and Mary Ann Mitchell on ''The District'' from 200 ...

, and

Ed Flanders Edward Paul Flanders (December 29, 1934 – February 22, 1995) was an American actor. He is best known for playing Dr. Donald Westphall in the medical drama series '' St. Elsewhere'' (1982–1988). Flanders was nominated for eight Primetime Em ...

in his last movie role.

Plot

This is a story about the breakup of the family. In particular, it focuses on the lifestyle of three divorced men in the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

area, Dave Goldman (

), wrestling coach/driver's ed teacher Vic D'Amico (

), and real estate agent Donny Carson (

). The film is presented from their perspective and it reveals their relationships with their children, former wives, girlfriends, male friendships, and their identities as divorced men. In addition to dealing with divorce, the film touches on spousal loss and young adult homelessness.

Cast

as Dave Goldman *

as Vic D'Amico *

as Donny Carson *

as Lucille *

as Dr. David Townsend *

as Susan (formerly Goldman) *

Ross Malinger Ross Aaron Malinger (born July 7, 1984) is an American former actor and automobile salesperson. He is best known for his roles as Jonah Baldwin in the 1993 movie ''Sleepless in Seattle'', starring Tom Hanks, and as Bobby Jameson in the 1997 Disney ...

as Ben Goldman * Dana Wheeler Nicholson as Heidi Schmidt *

Mae Whitman Mae Margaret Whitman (born June 9, 1988) is an American actress and singer. She began acting in commercials as a child, making her film debut at the age of six in the romantic drama '' When a Man Loves a Woman'' (1994). She achieved recognition as ...

as Michelle Goldman *

as Grace (formerly D'Amico) *

as Meg D'Amico * Cameron Boyd as Jed D'Amico *

as Claire Carson *

as Emma Carson *

Johnny Whitworth Johnny Whitworth (born October 31, 1975) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as A.J. in ''Empire Records'' (1995), as Donny Ray Black in Francis Ford Coppola's '' The Rainmaker'' (1997), as Vernon Gant in '' Limitless'' (2011), as Bl ...

as Max Cooper *

Maria Pitillo Maria Pitillo (born January 8, 1966) is an American retired actress. She has starred in films and on television, most notably as Audrey Timmonds in ''Godzilla'' (1998). She also had a recurring role on the TV series '' Providence''. Early life Pi ...

as Kim *

as Phil *

as Walter Sims *

Wendell Pierce Wendell Edward Pierce (born December 8, 1963) is an American actor and businessman. Having trained at Juilliard School, Pierce rose to prominence as a character actor portraying roles both on the stage and screen. He first gained notoriety portra ...

as Hector *

Danny Masterson Daniel Peter Masterson (born March 13, 1976) Most sources give birth date March 13, 1976. FilmReference.com gives March 3, 1976. is an American actor. He played the roles of Steven Hyde in ''That '70s Show'' (1998–2006), Milo Foster in ''Men a ...

as Mikey *

Jack Black Thomas Jacob Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is known for his acting roles in the films '' High Fidelity'' (2000), ''Shallow Hal'' (2001), ''Orange County'' (2002), '' School of Rock'' (2003), ''E ...

as DJ at party *

Stephen Root Stephen Root (born November 17, 1951) is an American actor. He has starred as Jimmy James on the television sitcom ''NewsRadio'', as Milton Waddams in the film ''Office Space'' (1999), and provided the voices of Bill Dauterive and Buck Stricklan ...

(''uncredited'') as Awakening neighbor *

Michael Spound Michael David Spound (born April 8, 1957) is an American actor and writer. Early life Born in Santa Monica, California in 1957. Parents, Joan and Albert, moved the family (siblings Amy and Jack) to Massachusetts in 1959 settling in Concord. ...

as Mike

Reception

The film grossed $12.1 million in the U.S. in its theatrical run. It has an 18% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on 22 reviews.

's performance as the "date from hell" got good reviews, and earned her a nomination for an

American Comedy Award The American Comedy Awards were a group of awards presented annually in the United States recognizing performances and performers in the field of comedy, with an emphasis on television comedy and comedy films. They began in 1987, billed as the "f ...

. Many of the reviews complained that the movie played more like an episode of a

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

than a feature film. It was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

on March 8, 2005 through

Anchor Bay Entertainment Anchor Bay Entertainment (formerly Video Treasures and Starmaker Entertainment) was an American home entertainment and production company. It was a subsidiary of Starz Inc. Anchor Bay Entertainment marketed and sold feature films, television ser ...

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack includes performances by

Linda Ronstadt Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American ...

The Proclaimers ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...

Mary Chapin Carpenter Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

, Ben Taylor,

Everly Brothers The Everly Brothers were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly (February 1, 1937 – August 21, 2021) and Phillip "Phil" Everly (January 19, 1939 ...

, and

Jackson Browne Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 18 million albums in the United States. Emerging as a precocious teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he h ...

. It was released on March 14, 1995 through

Giant Records In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...

Track listing

References

External links

* * * * {{Sam Weisman 1995 films 1990s English-language films 1995 romantic comedy films 20th Century Fox films American romantic comedy films Films about divorce Films directed by Sam Weisman Films scored by J. A. C. Redford Films with screenplays by Gary David Goldberg 1990s American films