Only the Lonely

'Only the Lonely' is an okay film, that rides on the late/great John Candy's undeniable talent. The talented actor, pitches in a likable performance, that dominates the film. 'Only the Lonely' Synopsis: A Chicago cop must balance loyalty to his overbearing mother and a relationship with a shy funeral home worker. Besides Candy's likable performance, 'Only the Lonely' also manages to get in some cute/funny moments. The characters are nicely written & the Screenplay overall, has some niceness to it. But, the slow-pace as well as the length, needed some serious persuasion. The pace is slow & the film is lengthy by at least 15-minutes. Chris Columbus's Direction is fair. Cinematography is standard. Editing isn't crisp. Performance-Wise: Candy is the life of 'Only the Lonely'. Maureen O'Hara is theatrical. Ally Sheedy is cute. Anthony Quinn & James Belushi appear in brief roles. On the whole, 'Only the Lonely' is a yet another example of how great an actor John Candy was.

Danny Muldoon (John Candy) is a good natured Chicago cop living with his racist mother Rose (Maureen O'Hara). He's always worried about his mom. She keeps rejecting the flirty Greek Nick Acropolis (Anthony Quinn). He and his partner Salvatore Buonarte (James Belushi) drive the prisoner wagon. His brother Patrick is happy to have Danny take care of mom and moving them to Florida. Danny falls for Theresa Luna (Ally Sheedy) who works at her father's funeral parlor. She's also lonely and extremely shy. It's a light rom-com with lovable John Candy. Ally Sheedy is pretty quiet. I really love both actors and they project simple nice people. O'Hara has the funniest jokes. Surprisingly she is hilarious and provides the majority of the laughs. It's a shame that she disappeared from the movies for such a long time. She's the true breakout star of this movie.

A Chicago cop (John Candy) must balance loyalty to his overbearing mother (Maureen O'Hara) and a relationship with a shy funeral home worker (Ally Sheedy). When it comes to "John Hughes movies", this one is rarely mentioned. The primary reason is because he was only the producer and not the writer. But also, it just falls short. Despite being helmed by Chris Columbus, starring John Candy and Ally Sheedy, and having a strong supporting cast... it just never hits home. We have that Chicago feel we have grown to love from Hughes and company, but there are just no laughs in this one. Other than a few jokes about it being good to be a cop, the humor is just not here. And there is so much potential when you're dealing with a funeral home. Sure, that might make some rather macabre humor, but it isn't like they were far off already.

John Candy's "brother" states that Theresa is "plain." Is he freaking' BLIND!? She is BEAUTIFUL!! And SO sweet! I would marry Theresa in a heartbeat! I melt every time I see her! And she looks SO beautiful in that blue dress when Candy and O'Hara meet her for dinner! Gorgeous!! Small breasts? Who cares?, the size of a woman's breasts does not matter to me in the least. she is BEAUTIFUL! Great movie. I watch it over and over again. Here we go again with the "ten line" requirement! This is so ridiculous! I have already said everything that I need to say. Why does this site REQUIRE unnecessary wordiness? If I can say what is necessary in one to four lines why is more than that required? Doesn't make sense to me, does anyone else agree?

After Maureen O'Hara died last month, I suddenly got the urge to order this-her last theatrical movie-from Netflix for me and my mom to watch when she came back from visiting my sister in Seattle. I was wonderfully surprised to find out my mom hadn't previously seen this as that meant she would watch this with fresh eyes as I had seen this on VHS tape back in the day and remember enjoying this at the time. We both very much loved this just now. I mean, Ms. O'Hara is her lovable self-provided her character is a tad bigoted though she's simply "telling it like it is". Her son, John Candy-another performer who's been missed since he passed away only a few years after this movie-is a cop who lives with her and has been quite lonely as a result. Then one day, he meets Ally Sheedy as someone who does makeup on deceased bodies when they're both at a wake and he bravely asks her out which she accepts. I'll stop there and just mention that some complications ensue but things seem to work out at the end. Fine support from Jim Belushi as Candy's cop partner and Anthony Quinn as a neighbor who is crushing on Ms. O'Hara. Written and directed by Chris Columbus, he does a nice mixing of drama and comedy when the sequences call for it and also makes good use of the Chicago locations (a city I was born in and lived as a child for about 6 years as well as one I visited quite a bit during the '80s). Anyway, Only the Lonely is a fine tribute to the careers of both Candy and O'Hara before their untimely deaths. Oh, and Quinn as well before he passed several years later.

I AM A HUGE MAUREEN O'HARA FAN. There--I've said it, and now you'll know why this review will be biased. It was a few years back, late '90s, and I had just seen "McLintock!" over at my grandparents house. My grandfather was a huge John Wayne fan, and he watched the movie constantly. I love the Duke too, but I was amazed at Ms. O'Hara, who played his bitch of a wife. Not only was she gorgeous, but she could also beat the snot out of just about anybody (even the Duke himself) and look good doing it. That's a quality I wish I had, so I was quite taken with her. At any rate, I also managed to see "The Christmas Box" on TV, and I was a bona fide fan. While larking through Wal-Mart, I saw this movie--"Only the Lonely." It was a bargain video, only about $7, so I was all over it. The plot has been discussed at length--John Candy (Danny) falls in love with Ally Sheedy, only mom Maureen doesn't think it's an appropriate match. One of the jarring highlights of this movie comes when Mom From Hell meets Girlfriend From Funeral Home--she sees her, turns to John Candy and says, very matter-of-factly, "Where are her breasts?" What a Mom thing to say--it even manages to make YOU feel uncomfortable. Like it's YOUR mother and you're anticipating how the evening will turn out. Makes me squirm just thinking about it. Not surprisingly, the dinner doesn't go so well--how could it when you're dining with Medusa? Seriously though, Maureen O'Hara's character quite frequently seems to be a HORRIBLE person with no regards for the feelings of others. She's callous, arrogant, and impatient, yet I would love to meet her. An example of her temperament comes early in the movie. She's having coffee with Danny, and she's telling him how healthy she is and how well she can see. All the while she's pouring orange juice into her coffee. When this is pointed out to her, she exclaims, "Damned cartons! They're all decorated the same." Total, prompt, upfront denial of her inadequacy. It isn't her fault, it's the carton maker's lack of imagination that is the problem. The summary quote is my favorite line from the movie, and I've learned to mimic Maureen O'Hara's delivery of it quite well. When Danny tells her he can't help with the trick-or-treaters because he has a date, this is her retort. It just sounds hilarious when you hear it. The Halloween conversation between John Candy and Maureen O'Hara is, I think, the best in the movie. She paints herself as a poor helpless old lady, only we know better. John Candy's character, Danny, has a tendency to imagine his mother stuck in fatal situations (can ya blame him?), and his overactive imagination causes the friction in his relationship with Ally Sheedy. It also provides some amusingly goofy sequences where accidents that wouldn't happen to anyone happen to Maureen. (POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD.) She falls through a manhole AND gets murdered by a trick-or-treating homicidal maniac. Each time her dying words illustrate her selflessness (which of course she doesn't have)--after the manhole incident, she says "I hope you enjoyed your baseball game, Danny." Who can guilt you into submission better than your mother? This is a great movie to watch with your family, because it just might make everyone feel better about their mothers. After all, you could have Danny's.

It was a grand and inspired move from writer-director Chris Columbus to bring Maureen O'Hara back to the screen in a modern-day romantic comedy, playing the feisty, hen-pecking mother of an unmarried Chicago cop--but that's where Columbus' good ideas run aground. O'Hara's steely looks and angry outbursts are wonderful, and she's quite comfortable acting alongside John Candy as her son, yet this script is so thin it has to rely on mean-spirited fantasy and dumb, time-worn slapstick and insults to pad its running-time. The Chicago sites and neighborhoods aren't really captured with any flavor (the city never comes to life), and James Belushi just gets in the way as the proverbial best friend. Candy does some nice work, and Ally Sheedy (as Candy's new girlfriend from the local funeral parlor) works hard to give the love story a quirky bounce, but the results are a near-miss. ** from ****

ONLY THE LONELY gives such rich roles to JOHN CANDY and MAUREEN O'HARA as an Irish mother and son enduring a love/hate relationship while his outspoken mother "tells it like it is" to anyone who stands between her and her son. This includes the girl he's smitten with, a shy, introverted type (ALLY SHEEN) who wants him to stop putting his mother first under any and all situations. He's constantly imagining bad things happening to his mother if he neglects her (and this leads to some funny, imaginative moments that have him imagining the nightmarish things that happen when he turns his back on her). All of these incidents are vividly portrayed and given substance and wit by a clever script and some very truthful performances from the entire cast. MAUREEN O'HARA is so perfect as the hateful mother with her bigoted view of "that Dago girl" that she should have had at least an Oscar nomination for her feisty portrayal. JOHN CANDY creates a really sympathetic character as the man hopelessly in love with the quiet girl his mother despises. ANTHONY QUINN gives a gentle, finely shaded performance of the man next door who loves Maureen from afar and JOHN BELUSHI is excellent as Candy's worker friend. It's a good mixture of comedy and drama that never becomes too mawkish or sentimental and exposes some of the hypocrisies of human nature that are not often shown on screen. Well worth watching for the performances alone.

I know it takes place in Chicago, but because of Maureen O'Hara, Ireland's all-time best female actress, this movie has to be Irish. Although many of the people who commented on this movie, thought Miss O'Hara was a mean mother, she was really playing her part to the hilt. The interaction between her and John Candy, who plays an Irish-American cop, whose mother is from the old country, and has a hard time controlling her mouth or her actions. "It pays to be a cop," is a favourite saying of Candy, who uses his position to great advantage. The mean part comes when Maureen tries to break up John and his new girlfriend, because, as most Irish mothers do, she thinks the woman is not good enough for him. Why do I think this way? Because I am an Irish mother from Ireland.

Roles like this helped make big John Candy somewhat of a beloved figure in his time. He was good at playing big, lovable oafs that usually messed up but had a good heart. Many times, as in here, he might appear jovial on the outside but inside he was a very lonely guy, hence the title. I'll bet a number of viewers could identify with him. In this film he plays "Danny Muldoon." Ally Sheedy's character, "Theresa Luna," is sweet in the beginning but then becomes unfairly-demanding and annoying by the end. Maureen O'Hara did a fine job playing "Danny's" domineering mother, "Rose." She came out of retirement to do this film and did herself proud. Anthony Quinn's role was stupid. This movie is billed as a comedy but I didn't find a lot of laughs in it. It's really more of a sentimental drama, and it works on that level. I always enjoy seeing comedians do drama, because they are so good at doing it. I'm sorry Candy didn't make a few more dramatic roles.