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Defending your Life

1991

Albert Brooks

Meryl Streep, Albert Brooks, Rip Torn, Lee Grant ...

6.1

845

Comedy. Fantasy. Romance. Drama In an afterlife resembling the present-day US, people must prove their worth by showing in court how they have demonstrated courage. Yuppie Daniel Miller is killed in a car accident and goes to Judgment City, a waiting room for the afterlife. During the day, he must prove in a courtroom-style process that he successfully overcame his fears (a hard task, given the pitiful life we are shown); at night, he falls in love with Julia, the ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly	"A lackluster affair — smooth and mildly pleasant, with some honest chuckles but without Brooks’ special, prosaic madness."	NEU
United States	Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times	"The movie is funny in a warm, fuzzy way, and it has a splendidly satisfactory ending, which is unusual for an Albert Brooks film (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"	POS
United Kingdom	Time Out	"The film is finally too soft, but the performances are uniformly strong, the humour intelligently adult, and Brooks once again proves a pleasing alternative to Woody Allen."	POS
United Kingdom	Robyn Karney Empire	"The movie is lavishly designed and assembled. However, the sometimes muddled, sometimes boring, and definitely overlong screenplay, lacking subtlety and definition (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"	NEG
United States	Kathleen Maher Austin Chronicle	"The movie's light, easily forgotten and very good for a few laughs (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS

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