defending your life is an imaginative vision of the afterlife from the twisted mind of writer - director albert brooks , who also stars in the comedy .
after dying in a car crash , on his birthday of all days , brooks wakes up in judgement city , a satirical rendition of purgatory where higher beings evaluate the lives of newly deceased earthlings .
brooks has five days to convince two judges that he 's worthy of passing on to higher plains of existence .
enter rip torn as the slick lawyer who defends brooks in court against prosecutor lee grant .
during his " trial , " brooks must view episodes of his life on a movie screen , and these scenes are both hysterically funny and painfully poignant .
it 's impossible to resist chuckling ( and cringing ) at brooks as he and torn try to explain away his cowardly behavior on earth .
torn , in particular , is in vintage comic form , and he walks away with the picture .
the movie also features meryl streep , appealing
as the love - interest , and shirley maclaine , who pops up in a hilarious cameo .
while the film is uneven , many of its gags are price less .
take , for example , the food in judgement city : it 's always the most delicious you 've ever tasted . . .
and it 's also calorie - free -- so chow down !
appealing pops up in a hilarious cameo an imaginative vision many of its gags are price less both hysterically funny and painfully poignant