The Couch Trip

When LA celebrity sex therapist George Maitlin (Grodin) succumbs to a nervous breakdown, a London sabbatical is advised. The call to suitably uncharismatic locum Dr Baird is intercepted by lunatic John Burns Jr (Aykroyd). Assuming Baird's identity, Burns duly shows up in Therapy City, where his dotty advice worries the sponsors of Maitlin's popular radio phone-in show but wows the clients. A fellow con-artist (Matthau) rumbles the scam, and wants a piece of the proceeds. Ritchie's irreverent farce won't tip the balance of Hollywood's love/hate relationship with psychiatry, but it does have fun with the mythology. Aykroyd revels in a role tailor-made for his shoot-from-the-lip talent, his exuberant performance illuminating the film's sometimes flabby sentimentality and slack structure. Intermittently hilarious, if rickety, fun.