Defending Your Life
Defending Your Life • 1h 51m
Directed by Albert Brooks • 1991 • United States
Starring Albert Brooks, Meryl Streep, Rip Torn
Writer-director Albert Brooks stars opposite Meryl Streep in this delightfully offbeat romantic comedy that shows it’s never too late to change your life—even if you’re already dead. When advertising executive Daniel Miller (Brooks) dies suddenly in a car accident, he’s transported to Judgment City and faces a tribunal to decide whether he will go to a better place or return to earth for another incarnation. It doesn’t look good for Miller, but unexpectedly and for the first time in his life—and past lives—Miller discovers love. With his fourth feature, Brooks added a touch of warmth to his prickly comic style, and the result is one of his most touching and thought-provoking films.
Up Next in Defending Your Life
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Albert Brooks and Robert Weide on DEF...
The following conversation between writer-director-actor Albert Brooks and filmmaker Robert Weide was recorded remotely in November 2020.
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Albert Brooks, Lee Grant, and Rip Tor...
The following program consists of segments from interviews with writer-director-actor Albert Brooks and actors Lee Grant and Rip Torn. They were recorded for the television talk show “Crook & Chase” in 1991, around the time of the original release of DEFENDING YOUR LIFE.
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Donna Bowman on DEFENDING YOUR LIFE
Here, theologian and film critic Donna Bowman takes a closer look at DEFENDING YOUR LIFE and the afterlife world of Judgement City created by writer-director-actor Albert Brooks. This interview was recorded remotely in 2020.
