Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Walter Matthau has been living high on the hog and used to the extravagant life, due to his wealth left to him, but one day he finds it's all gone. It has come to his attention through his accountant that he is broke and that he has innumerable debts. He must liquidate. He must do something. That something, as he discusses and decides with his man, is to marry for money. Enter Elaine May, who is ideal, because she is eccentric, lonely, kind of naïve and unsuspecting, and plain but not too plain. Oh, and she's very, very rich. In his wooing her, they have adventures together, but mainly talking about her hobby of gardening and discovering new flowers. She loves flowers. He also finds that her staff has been taking advantage of her, because she is very gullible. People tend to take advantage of her sweet nature. Huh? It turns out that Walter has finally found some good use for himself in taking care of her and her financial business. He finally finds some self-worth in thinking of someone besides himself. Her sweet disposition, their chemistry together and the great ending really make the film. It is now my favorite "new film I've discovered." Elaine May wrote and directed this film and I loved all of it. The beginning is a bit confusing, but, if you can get past the first 5 minutes or so, I think you'll love it too. This really is a treasure ready to be unearthed. Find yourself "a new leaf" today and you'll have a new perspective on life.

... as I remember seeing it on TV in the 1970's when I was still in high school. In every way imaginable I saw myself as Henrietta -awkward, shy, clumsy, dismissed by everyone. Forty years later I still recognize that awkward person Elaine May is portraying. Yet Henrietta seems completely clueless that she is perceived this way, which was something I found hard to buy, but it does make her more endearing and make this film more about Henry's journey as he marries this totally helpless yet wealthy creature in order to get out from under his financial problems and discovers he has to take over every aspect of her life outside of her profession as botanist in order to preserve her wealth and his rarefied sense of order. You might say Henry dislikes his new wife so much because he initially sees himself as her - he says so at the beginning of the film when he finds out he has no money. He confides in his gentleman's gentleman that he has no talents or ambitions other than being rich. This is not the case, but this is how he sees himself. This really IS the case for Henrietta yet she does not see herself that way. So, in a really quirky way they are made for each other.How did Henry know that he would be the beneficiary of Henrietta's estate if he should manage to either kill her or arrange "an accident" and get away with it? Someone with so much money and so many hangers-on as Henrietta would almost certainly have a will prior to their meeting. A set-up by Henrietta's crooked lawyer (also only interested in her money) and Henry's uncle (Henry is on the hook for a loan from him that will mean the forfeiture of all of his assets should he fail) made to make Henry look like the fortune hunter he is backfires and Henrietta changes her will and leaves everything to Henry, with the entire sad tail of Henry's poverty just endearing him even more to her!Elaine May has always been an underrated talent, and as for Walter Matthau, what can I say? In 1968 he makes "The Odd Couple" and has me believing he's a the world's biggest working class slob, oblivious to his financial condition as long as poker night happens, and three years later he's got me believing he's the world's biggest snob interested only in savoring the finer things in life and dedicated "to traditions that were dead before you were born" - to put it in the words of Henry's (Matthau's) gentleman's gentleman. If you have a chance, give it a look. It is full of subtle dry humor executed to perfection by the cast. Only after the cynical 70's began could such a film be made. Maybe if it had been made after Watergate the public would have been cynical enough to appreciate it at the box office.

Isn't it sad that after 40 years this film got only 45 reviews? That means one review per year...Sometimes it's very difficult to accept that the general taste of the masses disregards excellent films like this one in favor of awful productions. Why, we are tired of counting into the hundreds the countless reviews about silly (or worse) movies not even worthy of the effort that it takes to write a review.Today I saw "A New Leaf" again after many years, and to my surprise, I enjoyed it even more (is that possible?) than the first time around. It has lost nothing of its excellent humor (Black Humor) and everybody is terrific, even the smallest and briefest of all the characters (and characters they are...: The Cleanning Lady, somebody to take home with you, Henrietta (Elaine May) a classic and unclassifiable character so warm, so humane, so grandiose in her absentmindedness.On the other hand nobody will think that taking Henry (Walter Matthau)or his rich uncle home could be a good idea (Uncle Harry --James Coco-- what a sublime actor!). In Henry's case the turnabout of this character is very well portrayed and shows us that nobody is true black or white, but merely a shade of the so many gradations of gray.The direction is perfect and some of the scenes belong in an anthology of their own; a scene --among most of them, all so good-- that I found almost out of a "Monty Python" movie is the one when Harry is riding a horse in the country and a messenger comes at full gallop to deliver a message and while he delivers it, his horse slowly starts to fall down, like dying or something (an asthma attack maybe?) and ends up full length on the ground, after an exhausted final neigh while the man dismounts it and finishes his message standing while watching his horse in stupor. Superb humor.One of my most endearing films, maybe helped by the fact that Elaine May is one of my favorite personalities ever and, as Henrietta, her character in this movie, was --classic and unclassifiable-- one of a kind.

For some of us, the only recent recording of this film came from either TCM or PBS (can't remember which), wherein the sound sync was off kilter. Also, some images were fuzzy. The print shown on SHO(W)is crisp and in sync. That has to do for those of us who await a DVD with Ms. May's comments -- we hope.This is a drolly funny film with great location shots in New York City, parts of Long Island, NY as well as Maine. The line that will live forever for me is this: "And she has to be vacuumed every time she eats!" What a gem of a film.