Me & Him

Me is Bert (Griffin Dunne), a happily married husband, father and junior architect. Him is...Bert's third leg (the short one, if you catch my drift). One day, "Him" decides that he is displeased with his owner's monogamous relationship and communicates same to Bert in a clear--and audible, only to Bert--voice (Mark Linn-Baker). German filmmaker Doris Dorrie (Men) has taken Alberto Moravia's novel, and tried to make a statement about the battle of the sexes. Unfortunately, the main casting is wrong (with one exception), and too much of the dialogue is carried by the sex-hungry, and rather boringly infantile, "him". The exception, and really the only light in this rather dismal sex farce is Bert's wife, played by the truly gifted Ellen Greene (Little Shop of Horrors). While everyone else is playing their roles larger than life, she plays hers straight--and, in doing so, becomes the only character to really illuminate why men and women so often fail to understand each other. But the majority of the film is given over to an endless array of Bert's chauvinist fantasies, which may appeal to men who like to be weekend couch potatoes and whose total vocabulary consists of "bring me a brewski," but are unlikely to stir up much of a response in thinking people, male or female. What might have been a potent comedy about the sexes, is instead a limp bore. Not recommended. (R. Pitman)