{"id":14369,"date":"2026-04-25T19:28:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T23:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=14369"},"modified":"2026-04-25T19:28:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T23:28:40","slug":"nothing-personal-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2026\/04\/25\/nothing-personal-1980\/","title":{"rendered":"Nothing Personal (1980)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Nothing Personal<\/strong> (1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 American International\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 100 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, sexual conversation\/material, brief nudity, violent images, drug use\/references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: George Bloomfield\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Robert Kaufman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Peter Mann\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Lazlo George and Arthur Ibbetson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 28, 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Donald Sutherland, Suzanne Somers, Lawrence Dane, Dabney Coleman, Roscoe Lee Browne, Sean McCann, Chief Dan George, John Dehner, David Steinberg, Craig Russell, Sean Sullivan, Michael Wincott, Catherine O\u2019Hara, Douglas Campbell, Jonathan Welsh, Patricia Collins, Maury Chaykin, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Derek McGrath, Tony Rosato, Angus McInnes.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $700,000 (US, approx.)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0If Nothing Personal<\/strong> had been made in the 40s, it probably would have starred Cary Grant and Judy Holliday. In the 50s, it would be a Rock Hudson-Doris Day vehicle. In 1980, it\u2019s Donald Sutherland (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) and Suzanne Somers (Three\u2019s Company). I\u2019ll give you a moment to let this unlikely, uninspired pairing sink in. He looks sleepier than usual. She\u2019s just out of her depth. Yet somehow Nothing Personal<\/strong> isn\u2019t a complete bust.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Nothing Personal<\/strong> had a hell of a time getting to the big screen. It was conceived in 1972, but stalled in development limbo for several years. Directors passed on it left and right. Then in 1979, writer Robert Kaufman penned the hit comedy Love at First Bite. It did well enough that SCTV director George Bloomfield decided to take a stab at it. To cut down on costs, he filmed it in Toronto (with a few exterior shots in Washington D.C.) in order to take advantage of Canadian tax shelter laws. It opened in March \u201980 to terrible reviews and bad box office making only $700K against a $4.5M price tag. It turns out the millions of viewers who tuned in to see Somers on the popular sitcom Three\u2019s Company each week didn\u2019t want to pay to see her in a middling rom-com.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Comedy is subjective, but I think we can all agree there\u2019s nothing funny about cruelty to animals. It has the opposite effect on me as well as anybody with a heart I\u2019d imagine. I find it hard to accept that this didn\u2019t cross the minds of anybody involved in the making of Nothing Personal<\/strong>. Did they really think clubbing baby seals would be a good fit in a supposed romantic comedy? I have no problem with movies addressing serious environmental issues except when it weighs down what\u2019s supposed to be light-hearted entertainment. That\u2019s what happens here.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Sutherland plays Roger Keller, a law professor at an unnamed university in Alaska. He\u2019s kind of stuffy, usually stoned and content to live a life free of ambition. That is, until one of his students (Wincott, The Crow) brings a horrific situation to his attention. Baby harbor seals are being murdered to clear the way for a missile base. It seems the US is concerned about China building their own and wants to be prepared just in case. Keller decides to do something about it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0He enlists the aid of Abigail Adams (Somers), a Harvard-educated environmental lawyer to help him fight the baddies behind the project, a development company run by Ralston (Dane, Bear Island). Together with his main flunky Dickerson (Coleman, 9 to 5), they do everything they can to silence Roger and Abigail, ultimately resorting to more dire methods.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Meanwhile, Roger and Abigail explore different avenues in halting the project. He delivers a rousing speech at a shareholder\u2019s meeting only to be shut down by the company\u2019s majority shareholder. They look through law books at the library where they learn the land actually belongs to the Manitoba Indians. The problem is there\u2019s only one surviving member (George, The Outlaw Josey Wales) of nearly extinct tribe. They need to find him and get him to sign papers that will stop the company from building on the land.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I know what you\u2019re going to ask. It\u2019s a rom-com, where\u2019s the rom? It\u2019s in there. Things get very personal in Nothing Personal<\/strong>. Let\u2019s start with the tagline promising that the two stars \u201cbreak the law in thirty-seven states, Puerto Rico and the Panama Canal Zone.\u201d This, of course, refers to a lawyer sleeping with his or her client. Abigail might be as good at her job as she claims, but never mistake ability for professionalism. Do you know any lawyers that admit to not wearing underwear to their clients? How about any who confer with clients while lying in bed naked? Both things happen here. It isn\u2019t long before they\u2019re both naked in bed with each other. Shocking, even scandalous, you say? Maybe not so much in 1979 (the characters mention the year more than once)?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Nothing Personal<\/strong> has an interesting supporting cast. Roscoe Lee Browne (The Cowboys), one of the most dignified actors this side of Olivier, shows up Paxton, the owner of the hotel where Roger stays while in D.C. An avid Hitchcock fan, he\u2019s ideally suited to help the pair in the film\u2019s finale, an intricate plan involving a game of distraction, an extended car chase and a barn in the middle of nowhere. It\u2019s always awesome to see Michael Wincott; I just wish he had a bigger role. And just in case there\u2019s any doubt about where Nothing Personal<\/strong> was made, Canadian mainstay actor Maury Chaykin (Def-Con 4) shows up in a brief role.<\/p>\n

\u00a0You might have noticed that quite a few SCTV cast members appear in Nothing Personal<\/strong>. Look for Catherine O\u2019Hara, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy and Tony Rosato in small parts. Bloomfield obviously invited his colleagues to the party. He does an okay job directing, but it might have been too much for him. According to Somers in her autobiography, he did get in over his head which is why Sutherland reportedly took charge of directing the actors. After this one, he stuck mainly to TV gigs until his death in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I won\u2019t even try to make excuses for Somers. She can\u2019t act. No, let me rephrase that. She has an extremely limited range as an actress. It\u2019s impossible to look at her and see anyone other than her dumb blonde character on Three\u2019s Company. Of course, the role required little more than jiggling, snort-laughing and looking empty-headed. She\u2019s supposed to be playing smart in Nothing Personal<\/strong>, but I see no difference. All I see is Chrissy Snow using a few legal terms. She\u2019s nice to look at though.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Sutherland basically sleepwalks through the movie. It\u2019s abundantly clear he\u2019s just there for the paycheck, nothing more. I suspect that\u2019s why he appeared in other Canadian-made films like The Disappearance (1977), Bear Island (1979), Threshold (1981) and Gas (1981). Somehow, he managed to find the time to make Ordinary People (1980) during this period. He\u2019s an actor\u2019s actor. Too bad he has no chemistry with his female co-star.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Nothing Personal<\/strong> isn\u2019t what I\u2019d call a good movie yet I like it. Sure, it\u2019s poorly made and has major tonal issues. It can\u2019t decide if it wants to be a comedy-thriller, a rom-com or a serious statement about saving the environment for evil companies. It tries to be all three and ends up a mess. This movie is a near-complete misfire. However, I can\u2019t help but enjoy it. I have a soft spot for these Canadian tax shelter films. There\u2019s something so entertaining about them, even the bad ones. Let me put it this way. I\u2019d rather watch Nothing Personal<\/strong> than any of the 400 generic rom-coms currently playing on Netflix. Call it cinematic comfort food.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nothing Personal (1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 American International\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 100 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, sexual conversation\/material, brief nudity, violent images, drug use\/references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: George Bloomfield\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Robert Kaufman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Peter Mann\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Lazlo George and Arthur Ibbetson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 28, 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Donald Sutherland, Suzanne Somers, Lawrence Dane, Dabney Coleman, Roscoe Lee Browne, Sean McCann, Chief […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14372,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Nothing-Personal-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14369"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14374,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14369\/revisions\/14374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}