Rating (1 to 10) : 6
Summary: Oscar Madison and Felix Unger, two male divorcees, live together even though they are complete opposites.
The movie is a cinematic rendition of Neil Simon’s play of the same name. Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau) is a recent divorcee living as a bachelor, working as a sportswriter while Felix Unger (Jack Lemmon) just got separated from his wife and moves in to Oscar’s apartment. These two couldn’t be more different. Oscar is the typical bachelor - messy, unkempt, a slob lacking in homemaking skills. Felix, on the other hand, is fussy, neurotic, tense (he has “clenched hair”) and obsessively clean, the feminine side of this peculiar couple. He is such a hypochondriac that he stopped himself from committing suicide because he hurt himself while attempting to carry it out.
After a while, they start to get on each other’s nerves as Oscar finally cannot take any more of Felix’s neurotic idiosyncrasies and obsessive-compulsive behavior. In humorous fashion, they try to live as roommates without speaking to each other and seeing each other as little as possible. It comes to a climax but the rooming situation is resolved.
You sense that the movie is from an earlier period – the movie is about two guys in New York City living together and not once does the movie show someone mistaking them as being gay. And the fact that Oscar, a sportswriter, can afford a roomy, seven-room apartment in Upper East Side of NYC is further proof.
The comedy and the movie script seem to have been well-adapted from the play; although having never seen Simon’s work, I can’t tell you how close it adheres to the “original”. Still, by watching the movie, you can tell that the movie is derived from a play: many of the scenes are set as if in a play - usually the actors interact around a staged set with a central prop; there are very few extras in any of the movie scenes; and the movie uses less dialogue and more body language and mimics to communicate to the viewer.
This movie is worth watching but some might not find it that funny considering how contemporary comedies are “over-the-top”. The movie’s humor is underexpressed - even the slapstick humor is subtle - but entertaining nonetheless.
Oscar Madison: “Life goes on even for those of us who are divorced, broke, and sloppy.”
Oscar Madison: “You’re not gonna make any effort to change? This is the person you’re gonna be until the day you die?”
Felix Unger: “We are what we are.”