BEFORE: I keep forgetting to mention that the San Diego Comic Con is about two weeks earlier this year than usual. Most people just shrug when they learn stuff like this, but I usually need to know more - after all, my job sort of depends on it. I've run a booth there for the past 12 or 13 years (it might be 15, they've all kind of run together...) and I've got the thing pretty much down to a science. But why does the date keep changing? I finally got the inside scoop last year when I asked the right person, and he told me that the convention center shares parking garages with Petco Park across the street, so they have to schedule the Comic Con for a week when the Padres are on the road, or during the MLB All-Star break, as they're doing this year. That made a lot of sense, because I remembered a time about 5 or 6 years ago, when the Comic Con took place simultaneously with Padres games, pre-season Chargers games, and auditions for "American Idol", and the poor city was bursting at the seams, and there wasn't a hotel room available for a 5-mile radius. Some smart scheduler probably vowed to never let that happen again.
So, I've got just under a week before I leave, and I'd hoped to watch some appropriate sci-fi or fantasy films, like last year I watched four Marvel superhero films right before going on break. This year, I'm not going to make it - and I blame the darn calendar. Pulling out of the Jack Lemmon chain, it's going to take a while to link to something geeky - I think I'm going to just miss it, so I'll deal with some sci-fi right after I get back, mmmkay?
Now, you may ask, why didn't I put "The Odd Couple II" before "Plaza Suite"? That would have put all the Jack Lemmon films together - ah, but I had no lead-out from "Plaza Suite", there aren't any Walther Matthau, or even Barbara Harris or Maureen Stapleton films on the watchlist. But Ellen Geer, who played Felix Unger's ex-wife in "The Odd Couple II", appears in today's film. Which is great for me, because I couldn't link to this film for a long, long time. I had it paired with "Melvin and Howard" on the list just because of the similar, name-based titles. But now it's linked, and Ellen Geer will be here tomorrow also. And this works here because Harold and Maude are another "odd couple", get it?
THE PLOT: Young, rich, and obsessed with death, Harold finds himself changed forever when he meets lively septuagenarian Maude at a funeral.
AFTER: This is another one of those "1,001 Movies to See Before You Die", which is somewhat ironic because it's sort of all about death. But I don't really see the appeal, I think I could have easily waited until after I died to watch this one. (Wait a minute, that can't be right...)
Harold is a rich teen who sees the FUN in "FUNerals", hangs out in junkyards, and passes his time devising more elaborate ways to fake his suicide in order to drive his mother crazy. This sends him into analysis, and his mother also signs him up for computer dating (which is nothing like it is today, meeting people via the internet - back then people figured only a computer could match up people's likes and dislikes, via punch cards or something). But he sabotages every possibly encounter with a girl by pretending to set himself on fire or chop off his own arm.
He's like a lost member of the Addams Family or something - today he'd dress all in black and call himself a "goth". He already drives a hearse. He develops feelings for Maude, who also goes to funerals, but I'm guessing for completely different reasons. Oddly, even though he's younger, Maude is so much more full in spirit - she teaches him to sing and play musical instruments, and she's determined to make the best of whatever time she has left. Which, I guess, explains her predilection for stealing cars and committing acts of civil disobedience.
Look, I'm all for raging against the dying of the light and all that. But I think there comes a time when you've got to grow up, stop posing nude for sculptors and toe the line. Being 79 and acting irresponsibly doesn't seem to make sense to me - but it's fine when you're a teen, even encouraged. I look forward to the day when the most exciting thing in my life will be a Saturday night bingo game, or perhaps a Sunday brunch buffet. I feel like even Comic-Con is a young man's game, and I'm getting way too old for the stress and exhaustion it brings into my life.
The film doesn't directly show a physical relationship between Harold and Maude, but it's definitely implied. Umm, ick and double ick. While I'd love to believe that if I were single in my 70's, I'd at least have a shot at a younger woman, when you flip the genders around, that just doesn't work for me. But what message am I supposed to get from this film? If I'm depressed, I should go have sex with an old lady? Life's too short not to know how to play the banjo? You shouldn't joke about committing suicide? I'm just kind of lost here.
Also starring Ruth Gordon (last seen in "Inside Daisy Clover"), Bud Cort (last seen in "Pollock"), Vivian Pickles, Charles Tyner (last seen in "Jeremiah Johnson"), Cyril Cusack, Eric Christmas, with a cameo from Tom Skerritt (last seen in "Ted").
RATING: 3 out of 10 Cat Stevens songs
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