"Can She Bake A Cherry Pie?" Compatibility Is Overrated

Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? (1983)

Remake potential: Two strangers discover they're strangely at home with each other.

• Country: United States

• Genre: Comedy

• Director: Henry Jaglom

• Starring: Karen Black, Michael Emil

Still from Can She Bake a Cherry Pie (1983), courtesy of The Samuel Goldwyn Company.

Clinical Overview

Divorced social worker Eli finds himself enthralled by Zee, a neurotic singer abandoned by her husband.

Diagnosis

Two oddballs absorbed in their eccentric habits barely register that they’re in a relationship.

Prescription

Move the story to today's New York. Eli is an activist. Zee is a jewelry designer. He knocks on her door canvassing for votes; she drags him inside to change a lightbulb and they hook up. Her apartment resembles a showroom, yet she dries her hands on stolen gym towels. Eli discreetly marks the towels at the gym, waiting for them to turn up in her bathroom like love letters.