I can't remember the name of this film

November 6, 2012 10:21 AM

When I was a teenager I rented a VHS copy of a Steven Seagal movie (I was young, but it's no excuse) got the video back home and another film was in the box. I cannot remember the name of the film and I believe I will die unhappy if I don't get an answer to this admittedly unimportant but frustrating question...

(assume that any of these details may be incorrect because of the passage of time and it's effect on my memory)

I vaguely recall it all being set in one room (or was it just for the majority of the film?) and it featured a psychiatrist (I assume) and a man who went to visit him for a session...... I always thought in the back of my mind that it was Richard Dreyfuss (Google/IMDB search reveals nothing, but then he has been in a lot of films)

Suffice to say every combination of:
Psychiatrist film
Movies set in one room
Richard Dreyfuss
Actors who look like Richard Dreyfuss...

... have been searched for by me online!

This isn't my life's quest, but finding an answer to this question would placate a part of my brain that has been asking questions for about 15 years now.

posted by redskythinking to media & arts (19 answers total)

Do you remember what year it was that you rented the movie in question? It helps rule out subsequent movies.
posted by marimeko at 10:28 AM on November 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Richard Dreyfuss played a psychiatrist in the movie What About Bob? (1991), so around the time Seagal movies like Marked for Death (1990), Out for Justice (1991) and Under Siege (1992) were coming out.
posted by MuffinMan at 10:30 AM on November 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

All set in one room? Could it have been My dinner with Andre? (trailer) Wallace Shawn sounds a lot like Richard Dreyfuss to me.
posted by zippy at 10:31 AM on November 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Roy Scheider in Still of the Night
posted by thelonius at 10:33 AM on November 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

marimeko - they had a huge selection of movies at this video rental place. I recall it being the mid-nineties when I was there though. Come to think of it, unless it was a new film, that information is useless to you, sorry.
posted by redskythinking at 10:44 AM on November 6, 2012

zippy - I picture it in my head more like an actual psychiatrist's office. perhaps in a high rise building, certainly not ground floor. Have seen My Dinner With Andre ages ago and recall it being in a restaurant. Should have mentioned I recall it (maybe!) being in a psychiatrist's office in the question, my fault.
posted by redskythinking at 10:47 AM on November 6, 2012

thelonius - Roy Schieder was in Jaws with Dreyfuss, maybe that's how my teenage mind got them confused, but looking at the synopsis, that film alludes to it taking place in more than one room...
Have you seen it? Was it mostly in one room?
posted by redskythinking at 10:48 AM on November 6, 2012

It does not take place solely in one room, but I think you may be remembering the many flashback scenes where the patient who was murdered was in therapy sessions with Scheider's character. A lot of scenes happen in his office, in fact - detectives come to see him there, the dead guy's mistress turns up there.

He and Dreyfuss do not really look alike, but I tend to mix them up too. They were both at the peak of their careers around the same time.
posted by thelonius at 10:53 AM on November 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

muffin man - 'what about bob?' is a great film but not set in one room. I think i've thrown a curveball by mentioning Richard Dreyfuss, I could have got that completely wrong. Definetly watching What About Bob? soon again though.
posted by redskythinking at 10:57 AM on November 6, 2012

thelonius - it's definetly the closest answer, I'll give you that.

However I picture it being one room and perhaps even only 2/3/4 cameras and the reason why I recall it is because (in my head) the setting never changed. It had a 'My Dinner With Andre' style to it, in that it was all about the two characters, lots of conversation, but no action (not that this is a bad thing)

I get the feeling i'm going to watch 'Still of the Night' very soon and it won't be it and i'll still not have the answer. This isn't frustrating AT ALL.
posted by redskythinking at 11:02 AM on November 6, 2012

It's at least a pretty good movie. I don't want to give any spoilers, but there is definitely a dramatic scene near the end that is not in the shrink's office. I know you seem pretty positive about the one room thing, but that is the kind of detail that we often get wrong in memories.
posted by thelonius at 11:07 AM on November 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Was the shrink a woman?
posted by HuronBob at 11:09 AM on November 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Was it Silent Fall?
posted by marimeko at 11:16 AM on November 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

HuronBob - I picture it being two guys. Psychiatrist (or maybe a private eye or lawyer, but most likely a shrink) behind a desk asking the guy/patient/client lots of questions who was sitting comfortably in an easy chair/arm chair questions. The client giving lots of answers. They seemed like they were getting to the route of the issue at hand.

More info: almost definetly American (possibly Canadian at a push) I didn't mention this before. On reflection, that really doesn't help! (I'm from the UK myself and it definetly wasn't British/European/foreign etc)
posted by redskythinking at 11:17 AM on November 6, 2012

marimeko - that ticks two boxes, Richard Dreyfuss and him being a shrink. But it doesn't seem like it was set in one room. The review talks about a team of psychiatrists and lots of pictures of people outside, a big cast, a child instead of a man. Definetly watching that just in case as well though.
Honestly though - if Ask Metafilter can't answer this, then no-one can. I think i'm going to have to get my memory wiped so it stops bugging me.
posted by redskythinking at 11:21 AM on November 6, 2012

Was it a drama?
Was it a comedy?

WE GOTTA FIGURE THIS OUT!!!
posted by foxhat10 at 12:05 PM on November 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

Could it be Final Approach? It's a 1991 film starring Hector Elizondo and James Sikking. It's been a long time since I saw it, but it's mostly confined to one room IIRC, with a few flashbacks to some aviation and family scenes. It deals with a pilot coming to terms with the aftermath of some mysterious accident.

Either of those guys could bubble up in memory as Richard Dreyfuss with the dimming effects of time, and I think Hector Elizondo played a psychiatrist or psychologist.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 1:32 PM on November 6, 2012

under_petticoat_rule: Final Approach is on youtube in it's entirety.
I've just skipped through it and the guy in the white coat looks so much like the image I had of the psychiatrist/guy who asks all the questions/Richard Dreyfuss. Like you said, it's Hector Elizondo. He's not his twin, but he could definetly be his brother.

It's been so long now (this thread and the time since i've seen this film!) that I'm inclined to believe that this is the film.
Just skipped through some more and I've started to remember seeing this guy in other films and remembering a funny feeling I have when I watched him - it's because I remember him in this actual film... this film I could never find because I thought it was Richard Dreyfuss.

I can't believe you managed to find it!

...and I can't believe this movie is so fucking bad!

Thanks guys,all of you, honestly, that was seriously nice of you to indulge me and my stupid question. I've got the day off work tomorrow and instead of going to the gym with a friend, i'm going to be watching some of the films listed above and then i'm going to top it off with a few glasses of wine, rip the movie from youtube and have a triumphant screening of Final Approach starring Hector Elizondo!

Going to recreate the moment from when I was a teenager by renaming the file name to 'Under Siege'.
posted by redskythinking at 4:02 PM on November 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

Nothing good ever happens when Gary Busey wears lipstick.

This was an exception.
posted by mule98J at 9:17 PM on November 6, 2012