Georgia (Marsha Mason) is a successful Broadway actress who is alcoholic and has bad relationships with men. The film opens with her successful 90 day rehabilitation at an expensive Long Island rehab clinic and her return to Manhattan and to her two best friends. They are Jimmy (James Coco), a gay actor who drowns his sorrows in food, and Toby Landau (Joan Hackett), a beautiful bitter socialite whose main achievements are the rich men who have fallen in love with her. When we first meet Georgia, she is a voice in the dark behind the opening credits talking to her psychiatrist. ''The funny thing,'' Georgia says, ''is that I don't particularly like drinking, but I like bars. I like the people you meet in bars. I don't like the taste of liquor, but when I drink I'm very funny. At least, that's what people tell me later.''
A number of crises are waiting for Georgia when she leaves the clinic. Her teenage daughter Polly (Kristy McNichol), whom she neglected as a child, wants to move back in, though they still have to repair their relationship. Polly has the kind of wisdom given to teenagers in farces. Former boyfriend David (David Dukes), a writer and heel, has just penned a new drama that he wants her to star in--a fictionalized version of their often-combative relationship. Off-screen there is also Georgia's ex-husband, who has remarried. Basically, the story is about a vain alcoholic Broadway actress who tries to stay sober while dealing with the problems of her teenage daughter and her friends, and a gay actor relegated to small roles in third-rate shows.
This drama by Neil Simon is not one of his typical comedies, though there are moments of humor in this moving and uplifting film. Using 15 lines from ''The Gingerbread Lady,'' his 1970 Broadway failure, Simon has written an upbeat, often funny and occasionally harrowing story about an alcoholic. It's one of his best, and it's been treated with care by Glenn Jordan, a television director whose first theatrical film this is. All the main actors are outstanding and earned many award nominations. Marsha Mason is excellent, and the film is impressive and unforgettable. David Shire composed the original music.
