Only When I Laugh (1981)

An actress (Marsha Mason) returns home after spending some months at a rehab due to chronic alcoholism. She's clean and sober but the pressures of dealing with her teenage daughter (Kristy McNichol), working with an ex-lover (David Dukes) and dealing with her neurotic best friends, a vain woman (Joan Hackett) and a struggling gay actor (James Coco) start her unraveling. Based on the play THE GINGERBREAD LADY by Neil Simon and directed by Glenn Jordan. Simon's play has been overhauled for its screen adaptation to make it more movie audience friendly. Simon's screenplay is rather simplistic and leaning toward cliche. Certainly Coco's gay best friend of the heroine is borderline offensive and a scene between him and a Puerto Rican delivery boy (John Vargas with a dreadful accent) is ghastly. As a writer, Marsha Mason is the best thing that ever happened to Neil Simon (they made a total of 5 films together). Miraculously, she manages to make his comic patter sound wittier than it is and his more dramatic moments actually poignant. Joan Hackett as Mason's fragile best friend also brings a pathos to the role that makes it more interesting than it does on paper. With Kevin Bacon and Guy Boyd.