a painfully protract and maudlin and predictable drama and my twenty fifth sidney lumet film and garbo talk and get file precipitously on the low quality end of my quest . the film document a harried young work man name gilbert ( ron silver ) and who be son to estelle rolle ( anne bancroft ) and eccentric and feisty and above all and an obsessive fan of greta garbo . when estelle becomes afflict with a brain tumor and her son decide to go on an obsessive quest of his own represent track down greta garbo and and bring her to his mother . anne bancroft be in full on and chew the scenery auntie mame mode here and that kind of feisty ol gal that film love and where she mouth off to people and and stand up for her ideal and and end up in jail all the time . she stand outside of the film a an obvious artificial construct and and every scene with her be yuk yuk lame while every note strike false . the rest of the character be equally a one dimensional and but tremendously less interesting . ron silver be flat a can be and and his attempted love triangle be as telegraph a anything else in the film represent he be date affluent lisa rolfe ( carrie fisher ) and but become smitten with oddball co worker jane mortimer ( catherine hick ) and and i call every scene three scene before they happen . that the other problem . one dimensional character can survive if they be posit in an intriguing and captivate story and but there simply nothing here . the film pace be glacial and resplendent with extraneous material that strengthen absolutely nothing and and when the film do begin to follow a linear plot and it both plod and uninteresting . there be plenty of guest star and so to speak and include harvey fierstein a a gay new yorker ( imagine that ) in yet another highly inessential scene . late in the film and it attempt to make a halfway decent statement on the nature of idolatry and it role in our life and but by that time and none of the character exist a real people and and the film have bore me into submission and so it function a a case of far too little and far too late . the film be my twenty fifth lumet direct film and make him easily my most viewed director and but outside of a couple egregious miss ( a stranger among u and anyone . ) and he hasn not plumb the painfully uninteresting depth of garbo talk . { grade represent 4 . 5/10 ( c or c ) or # 21 ( of 24 ) of 1984 or # 23 of 25 lumet film } .