With his career on the skids, a Hollywood screenwriter enlists the aid of a modern-day muse, who proves to test his patience.With his career on the skids, a Hollywood screenwriter enlists the aid of a modern-day muse, who proves to test his patience.With his career on the skids, a Hollywood screenwriter enlists the aid of a modern-day muse, who proves to test his patience.
- Awards
- 3 nominations
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaCommenting on Martin Scorsese, who plays himself in one scene, Albert Brooks makes reference to the movie Taxi Driver, in which he played a role.
- GoofsThey apparently have health department approval, but nobody wears a hairnet or cap while preparing the dough for the cookies.
- Quotes
Jennifer Tilly: Isn't Josh a doll?
Steven Phillips: Oh, yes, he's a real doll. He's like a regular little Chucky.
Featured review
Gets funnier every time I watch it
Brooks is the West-Coast doppelganger of Woody Allen, despite the fact that he's about twenty years younger & takes on characters decidedly white-bread Middle American Gentile. All of Brooks' movies are about him entering a critical transition period of life (or death). Like Allen's films, his variations on this familiar theme range in quality. 'The Muse' is a solid effort. Most Brooks films have funny zingers; this one has a whole filmful plus a clever story to boot, and a big-budget cast. The more you know about Hollywood and the motion picture industry (I recommend 'The Big Picture' by Epstein), the more true-to-life you understand the film to be, and thus the funnier the jokes become.
I'm not sure why it did poorly, and reading others' comments yields little insight. All I can say is that Brooks is never a fully sympathetic character--he is always at least partly to blame for his predicament--never quite the "aw-shucks" underdog. At least this time he and Johnson introduce other characters who are even more sympathetic to generate audience goodwill. Not to mention that the two leading ladies are both stunningly good-looking. Plus the whole Hollywood self-referencing is a lot of fun. Bottom line is, I believe that this is among the best of Albert Brooks' films. It has many winning qualities which permit it to transcend the Brooks formula. It shares a certain affinity with another wry comedy, "Being There"; both are stories about people being drawn in by the mysterious among us.
I'm not sure why it did poorly, and reading others' comments yields little insight. All I can say is that Brooks is never a fully sympathetic character--he is always at least partly to blame for his predicament--never quite the "aw-shucks" underdog. At least this time he and Johnson introduce other characters who are even more sympathetic to generate audience goodwill. Not to mention that the two leading ladies are both stunningly good-looking. Plus the whole Hollywood self-referencing is a lot of fun. Bottom line is, I believe that this is among the best of Albert Brooks' films. It has many winning qualities which permit it to transcend the Brooks formula. It shares a certain affinity with another wry comedy, "Being There"; both are stories about people being drawn in by the mysterious among us.
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Sprache
- Also known as
- The Muse (In Goddess We Trust)
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $15,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $11,614,954
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $3,926,825
- Aug 29, 1999
- Gross worldwide
- $11,670,561
- Runtime1 hour 37 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
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![Sharon Stone, Andie MacDowell, and Albert Brooks in The Muse (1999)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNzA1NmNlMWYtNzI5NC00MmEwLTgyOWMtNjdmOTA2MDU3NTFjXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxNzMzNDI@._V1_QL75_UY133_CR0,0,90,133_.jpg)