Simply A Masterpiece

Did you people see the same film I saw?

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Very fond though I am of Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft, I could not have known how lucky I was to find a VHS copy of this movie (yes, I still use a VCR). Any big fan of theirs should prioritize it. It is jam-packed with humor and Lemmon's endearingly characteristic pathos. It was another tailor-made role for him, and Bancroft played her part to perfection. It is also very much a New York City movie in that Manhattan is not simply the backdrop, but is experienced as such. It has been my observation that spiraling into madness is always funnier than madness itself. The movie is after all based on "a serious play that's very funny" to quote the playwright and adapter Neil Simon. Although it soars as a comedy and certainly does not go awry as a drama, I give it nine stars instead of ten because it is considerably more amusing to me than it is emotive. It is great comedy and good drama, as apparently intended.Sylvester Stallone's memorable cameo is a much appreciated bonus!

I contrast this film with "The Out Of Towners". Both films were starring Jack Lemmon. Both were about a frustrated man battling New York City. But, "The Out Of Towners" ("TOOT") was strangely uplifting and I enjoyed it immensely, while this film is downright depressing.It's not Jack Lemmon's fault. His acting is downright perfect. And let's face it, there was and remains no actor who could play frustration better than Jack Lemmon. But in "TOOT", Lemmon's character was likable...you were rooting for him in his quest to overcome the forces against him. Here, however, Lemmon's character wallows in his troubles.A problem I have with this film is that it is often listed as a comedy-drama. I don't eve think it's a black comedy. There's nothing funny about a man going through a nervous breakdown. Yes, there is humor here and there, but this is not a funny film. That's a general gripe I have -- too many review entities think that any film that has some humor in it is a comedy. That's wrong.The best acting here, however, is that of Anne Bancroft as the wife. Gene Daks is good as the brother.I think what's sad here is that as Lemmon begins to recover, the pressure that has been on his wife begins to destroy her life.Maybe I'm also just a little tired of Neil Simon. Did he ever do anything really different? Bottom line: Okay, I watched it once, I would not want to watch it again. And I don't usually say that about films with Jack Lemmon.

A real buried treasure in the Neil Simon canon. Jack Lemmon is a recently laid off New Yorker struggling to make sense of his life while fighting the daily demons of urban living. From nasty neighbors to insensitive relatives, Lemmon is hit with all of it...his life is in a nosedive! Neil Simon's screenplay is very cutting, even more so than in his earlier anti-NYC tirade THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS. Melvin Frank's direction does come off as a bit unimaginative, but that's really because most of the movie takes place in the apartment Lemmon shares with patient wife Anne Bancroft. The acting is excellent, with Lemmon giving a really great performance and Bancroft matching him with both her warmth and, when needed, caustic tongue. The supporting cast includes the great character actor M.Emmett Walsh as well as Elizabeth Wilson, Florence Stanley, and, in a rare acting role, the director Gene Saks, as Lemmon's overly cautious older brother.

Worth a chuckle or more, this sometimes hilarious comedy hits a raw nerve with anyone who has lived in an apartment building where you can hear all the noise you never wanted to (at all sorts of hours), in a world that starts with listening to the radio news detail one horror after another.That's the way the Broadway play started. The lights went out before the curtain opened and all you heard was a radio announcer delivering one crazy incident after another on the local news. That was the prologue to what you knew was about to follow. Then the curtains parted and the play began.JACK LEMMON and ANNE BANCROFT play off each other brilliantly, but when all is said and done, there's just something missing in this Neil Simon comedy. The payoff that you should feel when the movie ends, just isn't there.And yet, when you hear some of the news, it's almost quaint. Just think what was supposed to get a laugh: a news flash that a Polish freighter had just run into the Statue of Liberty. How tame!! Imagine what kind of news flash there would have been if this were written after 9/11.Good supporting roles from Gene Saks, as Lemmon's brother, and Elizabeth Wilson and Florence Stanley as his sisters.It may be lesser Simon, but it's still worth seeing, especially for New Yorkers.