A man starting again
In Starting Over, released in 1979 and directed by Alan J. Pakula, Burt Reynolds plays Phil Potter, a man whose wife has left him for another man and who is trying, awkwardly and sincerely, to build a new life. Phil moves into a small apartment, returns to teaching, and begins dating again, but he is not ready. He is funny, lonely, and still in love with the life he has lost, and Reynolds plays him with a vulnerability that surprised audiences who knew him mainly from car chases and comedies.
The film was an important step for Reynolds. It showed that he could carry a romantic comedy-drama without a fast car or a fistfight, and that his charm worked just as well in a quiet apartment as on a highway. Critics praised the performance, and it remains one of the most respected entries in his filmography, a reminder that his range was wider than his biggest hits suggested.
Phil Potter, divorced and adrift
Phil is not a hero in the usual Reynolds sense. He is a man who has been left, and who is trying not to be bitter about it. He makes jokes, but the jokes are thinner than usual. He goes on dates, but he compares every woman to his ex-wife. He tries to be modern and mature about divorce, but he is still hurt. Reynolds plays all of this with honesty. He does not hide Phil’s self-pity, but he also does not let it curdle into cruelty. Phil is trying, and the audience roots for effort as much as for success.
The performance depends on small details: the way Phil arranges his new apartment, the way he talks to his brother, the way he listens when a date tells him about her own life. Reynolds, who could dominate a scene with a grin, here learns to be still. He lets other actors speak, and he reacts with attention. That restraint gives Phil a believability that a broader performance would have lost.
Two women, two possible lives
The film’s structure gives Phil two very different relationships. His ex-wife Jessica, played by Candice Bergen, is glamorous, successful, and still fascinating to him. She has moved on, but she has not entirely let go, and their scenes together are full of old jokes and old wounds. His new love, Marilyn, played by Jill Clayburgh, is a nursery-school teacher who is warm, funny, and honest about her own past. She does not want to be a replacement; she wants a real partner.
Reynolds’s chemistry with both actresses is excellent, and it is different in each case. With Bergen, Phil is witty and a little desperate, still playing the role of the charming husband. With Clayburgh, he is quieter and more tentative, learning to be himself rather than a performance. The film does not make the choice easy, and it does not pretend that a new relationship erases an old one. Phil must learn that starting over does not mean forgetting; it means carrying the past without letting it run his life.
Comedy from embarrassment
Starting Over is funny, but its comedy comes from embarrassment and recognition rather than from set pieces. Phil says the wrong thing on dates, misreads signals, and tries too hard to seem fine. Audiences recognise those moments because they have lived them. Pakula directs with a light, observational touch, and the film’s Boston setting, with its apartments, classrooms, and restaurants, feels like real life rather than a movie set.
Reynolds’s comic timing serves this style well. He knows when to pause, when to underplay a joke, and when to let a scene become serious. The film’s best moments are often its smallest: a phone call that goes wrong, a dinner that becomes awkward, a moment of kindness that surprises Phil himself. Reynolds plays them without reaching for a laugh, and the laughs come anyway, because the situations are true.
A director’s film, a star’s performance
Working with Alan J. Pakula, a director known for serious dramas, was a deliberate choice for Reynolds. Pakula did not ask him to be the Bandit in a cardigan. He asked him to be a man, and Reynolds responded with one of his most disciplined performances. The film’s tone is adult and unsentimental. It treats divorce as a real loss, not as a comic premise, and it treats new love as a risk, not as a reward.
That seriousness did not hurt the film’s popularity. Starting Over was a success, and it earned Academy Award nominations for Clayburgh and Bergen. Reynolds himself was not nominated, but the film changed how many critics wrote about him. He was no longer only a box-office star; he was an actor who could hold a complex romantic role and make it feel lived-in.
Why Phil Potter endures
Phil Potter endures because he is Reynolds at his most human. He is not the fastest driver, the toughest prisoner, or the greatest stuntman. He is a man in a small apartment, trying to cook dinner, answer the phone, and be kind to someone new. That ordinariness is the point. Reynolds shows that his charm was not only about speed and jokes; it was about warmth, attention, and a willingness to look foolish.
Watch Starting Over for the scenes with Clayburgh first, and then for the moments when Phil is alone. Notice how Reynolds listens, how he pauses before answering, and how he lets Phil’s confidence return slowly rather than all at once. It is a gentle, funny, and surprisingly moving performance, and it remains essential viewing for anyone who wants to understand the full range of Burt Reynolds.