Best Friends (1982 film)

Richard Babson and Paula McCullen are a couple of Hollywood screenwriters who have lived and worked together for a number of years. Richard desperately wants to get married, but Paula does not feel the need.

Having just written a film script for producer Larry Weissman, the couple decides to get married without letting anyone else know. Paula can tell it is important to Richard, so she reluctantly agrees.

They are wed in a Los Angeles marriage bureau and decide to travel cross-country by train to inform their parents back East about what they have done as their honeymoon.

The first stop is Buffalo, New York, in the brutal winter, by Paula's parents. Eleanor and Tim McCullen are old-fashioned, so Paula informs Richard that they will need to sleep in separate beds. Richard is frustrated by the frigid weather and about being treated like a child.

From there they go to Virginia to visit Richard's parents, who reside in a giant high-rise condominium. No window is ever opened there, and Paula, feeling increasing panic attacks, is in dire need of some fresh air. The Babsons excitedly believe that Paula and Richard are engaged but are devastated to learn that they are already married.

Larry Weissman shows up, desperate for pages of a script rewrite. Paula insists on returning home to California immediately, but Richard talks her into staying until the end of the week.

The Babsons throw a party at a restaurant to celebrate the newlyweds, where Paula is upset by the comments of guests. Paula's frustration growing, she starts taking Valium to cope with the stress. As Richard and Paula's relationship deteriorates, Paula, in an attempt to keep up appearances in front of his relatives, accidentally overdoses and is hospitalized.

Paula and Richard are barely on speaking terms when they return home, and their personal and professional relationship has soured.

Larry locks them in a room, where the writers bicker and get no work done. Paula again demands fresh air until Richard breaks a window. When they finally talk it through, they are in agreement that getting married might not have been the best idea. They finish the rewrite and then walk off into the sunset, which turns out to be a Hollywood prop.

In addition, Valerie Curtin, who wrote the film's screenplay with husband Barry Levinson (they divorced the year it was released), has an uncredited cameo as Paula's friend sitting in a playpen.

Barry Levinson and Valerie Curtin wrote the screenplay based on their relationship. They had made And Justice for All (1979) with Norman Jewison and showed him a copy of the script. Jewison felt the draft had problems but was persuaded to make it by Goldie Hawn who read the script and was enthusiastic.^[3]

"I had been impressed with her talent ever since Sugarland Express," said Jewison. "I thought she was one of the most honest performers, so I said, 'If you'll do it, I'll do it'."^[3]

Hawn later said her part was "probably my most mature role" to date.^[4]

They decided together on Burt Reynolds as costar. "My instinct was that we should have star chemistry, like Cary Grant and Carole Lombard, like I had on The Thomas Crown Affair, with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway."^[3]

There were six weeks of filming in New York State, Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., then the unit shifted to Los Angeles.

Jewison said he "took my time" with the film. "I made it very carefully, indeed...I had a wonderful time making the film and I haven't seen such good chemistry between leading players since I made The Thomas Crown Affair."^[1]

The film's theme song "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?", was composed by Michel Legrand with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. In the film, the song (performed by Patti Austin and James Ingram) is first heard as Richard and Paula return to Los Angeles after their honeymoon and then heard during the closing credits. "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?" was nominated for an Academy Award and has become a popular standard and recorded by Johnny Mathis, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Jean, Scherrie & Lynda of the Supremes, and Shirley Bassey. Another song by the same songwriters and performers, "Think About Love", is played during a montage of the train journey.