Los Angeles. Dr. Maitlins is a famous psychatrist who earns millions of $ with his radio show. However, he suffered a mental breakdown and is recovering in London. His lawyer, Michaels, wants to find a cheap replacement, and thus randomly phones Dr. Baird, the head of a mental asylum in Chicago—but the phone call is answered by John Burns, one of the patients, who introduces himself as Baird and accepts the job. Burns escapes from the asylum, takes a flight to L.A. and does a really direct show, talking openly about sex problems with the callers. Despite expectations, he is a hit, and gains sympathy from secretary Laura. Burns also pays for an ex-priest, Becker, who knows his secret and is blackmailing him to keep quiet. When the real Dr. Baird and meets Maitlins in London, they rush to L.A. to expose the fraud. Baird and Maitlins both land in a mental asylum, while Burns escapes with Becker from prison.
Unlike other comedies about mistaken identity, "The Couch Trip" actually exhausts itself already in the first act, and enters a steady decline instead of escalating the hilarious chaos (which isn't there) in the final act. Directed by the very uneven Michael Ritchie, who helmed some better and some weaker films, it is one of the many films which dwell on the issue of the vague (and interchangeable) border between a sane and an insane person. Yet it is sad how empty and humorless, almost improvised the whole story seems. The first 20 minutes work. Dan Aykroyd gives it his best as Burns, a humorous R.P. McMurphy of sorts in a mental asylum, who manages to talk a patient, Lopez, out of committing suicide by jumping from a window ("You hate Dr. Baird, don't you?" - "I hate the miserable bastard." - "Just think how awful you can make him feel if I can talk you out of this ledge and succeed where he failed!"). However, once out of the asylum, the movie feels like a stranded whale.
The story is not quite clear, since one wonders why the lawyer, Michaels, wanted to find a really bad replacement for Dr. Maitlins' radio show about psychiatry—did he want to sabotage the show? If so, why? What was the point? But then again, why was he shocked when Burns started to do a really unorthodox show? The thing was not really well thought out to the end. Some jokes work here and there ("What are those white things?" - "Those are swans. They come with the hotel."), yet most of them feel underdeveloped, unless you think that there is something really funny about Burns talking to a man about premature ejaculation, who has it live on air, again and again. Walter Matthau's character of Becker is unnecessary, useless and should have been cut out of the story—he is there to blackmail the protagonist, but it all leads nowhere, and he feels like a third wheel, like an extra who does not contribute to the story at all. Conversely, more time should have been given to Dr. Maitlins (a very good Charles Grodin), who could have listened to the radio show and acted to stop it. Neither is it clear what Burns' appeal is, why is he such a hit among the audience. Sure, he talks directly about their sexual problems, but didn't Dr. Maitlins do that as well, just much more subtly? "The Couch Trip" is a generic film, without much inspiration or ingenuity, with only a handful amusing moments. One of them is when Aykroyd's Burns gives a demented speech in front of the audience of the privilege of their profession compared to that one of a doctor ("Be a psychiatrist. You won't have to wash your hands as much!") or when he puts a cigar on a crab pincer and "smokes" through a lobster during dinner.
Grade:+
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