Search a film or person :
FacebookConnectionRegistration
Defending Your Life is a american film of genre Drama directed by Albert Brooks released in USA on 5 april 1991 with Meryl Streep

Defending Your Life (1991)

Defending Your Life
If you like this film, let us know!
Released in USA 5 april 1991
Length 1h52
Directed by
OriginUSA
Genres Drama,    Science fiction,    Fantastic,    Comedy,    Comedy-drama,    Romantic comedy,    Fantasy,    Romance
Rating71% 3.5982553.5982553.5982553.5982553.598255

Defending Your Life is a 1991 romantic comedy-fantasy film about a man who dies and arrives in the afterlife only to find that he must stand trial and justify his lifelong fears in order to advance to the next phase of life; or be sent back to earth to do it again. The film was written by, directed by, and stars Albert Brooks. It also stars Meryl Streep, Rip Torn, Lee Grant, and Buck Henry.

The film was shot in and around Los Angeles, California. Despite its comedic overtones, Defending Your Life contains elements of drama and allegory.

Synopsis

Daniel Miller (Albert Brooks), a 40-year-old Los Angeles advertising executive, dies in a car accident on his birthday and is sent to the afterlife. He arrives in Judgment City, a Heaven-like waiting area populated by the recently deceased of the western half of the United States, where he is to undergo the process of having his life on earth judged. Daniel and the rest of the recently deceased are offered many Earth-like amenities and activities in the city while they undergo their judgment processes—from all-you-can-eat restaurants (which cause no weight gain and serve the best food), to bowling alleys and comedy clubs.

Actors

Trailer of Defending Your Life

Bluray, DVD

Streaming / VOD

Source : Wikidata

Comments


Leave comment :

Suggestions of similar film to Defending Your Life

There are 211 films with the same actors, 6 films with the same director, 93081 with the same cinematographic genres (including 3 with exactly the same 8 genres than Defending Your Life), 3314 films with the same themes, to have finally 70 suggestions of similar films.

If you liked Defending Your Life, you will probably like those similar films :
Modern Romance, 1h33
Directed by Albert Brooks
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Romance
Actors Albert Brooks, Kathryn Harrold, Bruno Kirby, George Kennedy, James L. Brooks, Jerry Belson
Rating69% 3.49723.49723.49723.49723.4972
Robert Cole (Albert Brooks) is a Hollywood film editor right in the middle of cutting a new science fiction film with George Kennedy. His relationship with very patient bank executive Mary Harvard (Kathryn Harrold) is caught between undying devotion and endless agony. It's all because selfish Robert is a bit of a self-involved neurotic who can't quite decide if their relationship is meant to be, mainly because he's not sure if she's the one or there's someone else.
Mother
Mother (1997)
, 1h44
Directed by Albert Brooks
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama
Themes Films about writers, Films about families, Psychologie, Psychanalyse
Actors Debbie Reynolds, Paul Collins, Albert Brooks, Rob Morrow, Vanessa Williams, Isabel Glasser
Rating68% 3.447613.447613.447613.447613.44761
John Henderson (Albert Brooks) is a successful science fiction writer who is finalizing his second divorce. Perplexed by the issues he has with women, John decides to initiate a project that will help him understand what went wrong in his relationships—he moves back in with his mother (Debbie Reynolds), occupying the same bedroom he had as a child.
Lost in America, 1h31
Directed by Albert Brooks
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Romance
Themes Transport films, Road movies
Actors Julie Hagerty, Albert Brooks, Candy Brown, Donald Richard Gibb, Maggie Roswell, Garry Marshall
Rating69% 3.4985253.4985253.4985253.4985253.498525
David and Linda Howard are typical 1980s yuppies in Los Angeles who are fed up with their lifestyle. He works in an advertising agency and she for a department store. But after he fails to receive a promotion he was counting on and is instead asked to transfer to the firm's New York office, David angrily insults his boss and is fired. He coaxes his wife to quit her job as well and seek a new adventure.
Portnoy's Complaint, 1h41
Directed by Ernest Lehman
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy
Themes Films about religion, Films about Jews and Judaism
Actors Richard Benjamin, Karen Black, Jill Clayburgh, Lee Grant, Jeannie Berlin, Kevin Conway
Rating53% 2.656332.656332.656332.656332.65633
The film focuses on the trials and tribulations of Alexander Portnoy, a Jewish man employed as the assistant commissioner of human opportunity for New York City. During a session with his psychoanalyst, he explores his childhood, his relationship with his overbearing mother, his sexual fantasies and desires, his problems with women, and his obsession with his own religion. Via flashbacks, we learn about his affairs with Bubbles Girardi, the daughter of a local hoodlum; Israeli Naomi; and gentile Mary Jane Reid, whose nickname "Monkey" reflects her remarkable agility at achieving a variety of sexual positions. Mary Jane seemingly is the girl of Portnoy's dreams, but as their relationship deepens and she begins to pressure him into giving her a ring, he shrinks from making a permanent commitment to her.
Sophie's Choice, 2h30
Directed by Alan J. Pakula
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Romance
Themes Films about religion, Films about suicide, Political films, Films about Jews and Judaism
Actors Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol, Rita Karin, Josh Mostel, Robin Bartlett
Rating74% 3.748243.748243.748243.748243.74824
In 1947, Stingo relocates to Brooklyn in order to write a novel and is befriended by Sophie Zawistowski, a Polish immigrant, and her emotionally unstable lover, Nathan Landau.
Damien: Omen II, 1h47
Directed by Don Taylor, Mike Hodges
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Fantastic, Action, Horror, Crime
Themes Films about children, Films about religion, Demons in film
Actors William Holden, Lee Grant, Jonathan Scott-Taylor, Nicholas Pryor, Lew Ayres, Sylvia Sidney
Rating62% 3.1026053.1026053.1026053.1026053.102605
A week after the burial of Robert and Katherine Thorn, archeologist Carl Bugenhagen (Leo McKern) learns of the survival of their adopted son Damien. Confiding to his friend Michael Morgan (Ian Hendry) that Damien is the Antichrist, Bugenhagen attempts to convince him to give Damien's guardian a box containing the means to kill Damien. As Morgan is unconvinced, Bugenhagen takes him to some local ruins to see the mural of Yigael's Wall, which was said to have been drawn by one who saw the Devil and had visions of the Antichrist as he would appear from birth to death. Though Morgan believes him upon seeing an ancient depiction of the Antichrist with Damien's face, both he and Bugenhagen are buried alive as the tunnel collapses on them.
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, 1h38
Directed by Albert Brooks
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Themes Political films
Actors Penny Marshall, Albert Brooks, Sheetal Sheth, Emma Lockhart, Jon Tenney, Amy Ryan
Rating55% 2.7509852.7509852.7509852.7509852.750985
Albert Brooks, a Jewish-American comedian, is asked by the United States government to travel to India and Pakistan to find out "what makes Muslims laugh." References are made to Brooks's earlier films, including Finding Nemo, Lost In America and Defending Your Life, along with his earlier stand-up comedy material.
Real Life
Real Life (1979)
, 1h39
Directed by Albert Brooks
Genres Comedy, Documentary
Themes Films about families, Films about television
Actors Albert Brooks, Charles Grodin, Dick Haynes, Frances Lee McCain, J. A. Preston, Dick Haymes
Rating69% 3.494533.494533.494533.494533.49453
Ordinary family man Warren Yeager and his wife Jeannette are delighted to have a documentary filmmaker, Albert Brooks, choose them for a new cinematic and "scientific" experiment—he intends to capture every waking moment of their daily life on film. It is a project Brooks confidently announces to a large gathering, even greeting them with a song.
Holocaust (TV miniseries), 7h55
Directed by Marvin J. Chomsky
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War
Themes Films about religion, Political films, Films about Jews and Judaism
Actors Joseph Bottoms, Tovah Feldshuh, Michael Moriarty, Sam Wanamaker, Meryl Streep, James Woods
Rating79% 3.997513.997513.997513.997513.99751
A German Jewish family, the Weisses, consists of Dr. Josef Weiss (Fritz Weaver), the father; Berta Weiss (Rosemary Harris), the mother and talented pianist; Karl Weiss (James Woods), an artist who is married to a Christian woman named Inga Helms-Weiss (Meryl Streep); Rudi Weiss (Joseph Bottoms), an independent, rebellious soccer player; Anna Weiss (Blanche Baker), the young daughter; and Moses Weiss (Sam Wanamaker), Joseph's brother and a chemist from Warsaw. Throughout the series, each member of the Weiss family experiences hardships and are ultimately led to a terrible fate, with the exception of Rudi and Inga.
Doubt
Doubt (2008)
, 1h44
Directed by John Patrick Shanley
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Themes Films about education, Films about children, Films about religion, Films about sexuality, Théâtre, LGBT-related films, Films about pedophilia, Films based on plays
Actors Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis, Lydia Jordan, Alice Drummond
Rating74% 3.748123.748123.748123.748123.74812
Set in 1964 at a Catholic church in The Bronx, New York, the film opens with the jovial Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) giving a sermon on the nature of doubt, noting that like faith, doubt can be a unifying force. The next evening, Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep), the strict principal of the parish school, discusses the sermon with her fellow nuns, the Sisters of Charity of New York. She asks if anyone has observed unusual behavior that would inspire Father Flynn to preach about doubt, and instructs them to keep their eyes open should any such behavior occur in the future.