BEFORE: I've got one more Jack Lemmon film, and one more Neil Simon film after tonight. This means I've worked my way through nearly all of Neil Simon's work - not all at once, in bits and pieces, but I'm hard pressed to find a movie based on a Simon play that I haven't seen. I don't have direct linking from "The Prisoner of Second Avenue", but at this point I shouldn't have to draw on the many connections between Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, do I? I considered watching the "Grumpy Old Men" films here to provide a link, but that would throw off my plans, and I wouldn't hit the film I want on July 4, or reach sci-fi films in time for Comic-Con. So any of the 47 films that Lemmon and Matthau made together allow me to get to this one now.
As I mentioned the other day, the story that eventually became "The Out-of-Towners" was once part of the play "Plaza Suite", but Simon reduced the play from four acts to three, leaving audiences with the work that got turned into this movie. And last week I watched Jack Lemmon in double-roles, twice, but Matthau one-ups him here by appearing as three different characters.
THE PLOT: Three separate stories concerning relationship issues are presented, each largely taking place in suite 719 of the Plaza Hotel in New York City.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "California Suite" (Movie #1,818)
AFTER: Where you might see a hotel suite - a sitting room, a bedroom and a bathroom - Neil Simon saw a blank canvas, on which a whole host of relationship dramas could be painted.
Eventually, I developed an ear for Neil Simon's style of dialogue, much as I did when I watched so many Woody Allen films in a row. It's a wonder to me that no one ever made a parody of Neil Simon's work, a pastiche of the way his characters talked and acted, poking fun at the whole genre, much like Simon did with "The Cheap Detective" or "Murder by Death".
Unfortunately so much of the dialogue here (as it has been in so many Simon-based films) is made up of bickering - the guy seems to have made a whole career out of couples arguing in non-constructive ways. I suppose I should count myself fortunate, as this film contains more arguing in 2 hours than I've sustained in a 19-year relationship. Is that the goal, like watching people being killed in horror films is supposed to make me happy to be alive?
And every single little nugget of information is SO important that it has to be repeated three times, if not more. Which means it all gets so banal - "I'm in Room 719. That means I'm on the 7th floor. Do you have a reservation for Room 719? Is that what it says on the card, Room 719?" Geezus, we GET IT, already!
Or, "Roy, sit down and talk with me." "What do you mean, sit down and talk with you? I don't have time to sit down and talk with you!" "You need to sit down and talk to me!" "I've got things to do, I can't sit down and talk with you!" "Well, you can't do that thing until you sit and talk with me!" And so on, and so on.
This film relies heavily on simple stereotypes, which is also unfortunate, but the stereotypes are there because they do work. The suburban couple married for 23 years (or is it 24?) whose relationship is falling apart. The sleazy film producer trying to seduce an old girlfriend. The uptight father of a nervous bride who's locked herself in the bathroom on her wedding day. Sure, there are probably real people like this out there, but why pick these particular people to celebrate?
The third act is probably the funniest, with the bride locked in the bathroom, but it's also the one that relies most heavily on slapstick, which I tend to regard as a lower form of comedy. I can see the similarities to "The Out-of-Towners" because the situation keeps getting worse as time goes by and the wedding guests get more impatient, AND the bride's mother tears her stocking, AND the bride's father tears his jacket, etc. etc.
Also starring Maureen Stapleton (last seen in "Interiors"), Barbara Harris (last seen in "Family Plot"), Lee Grant (last seen in "Divorce American Style"), Louise Sorel, Alan North, Augusta Dabney.
RATING: 3 out of 10 slices of lean roast beef
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