Tuesday, August 9, 2011

The Odd Couple (1968)



I recently watched this film for the first time, and then two days later hosted a houseguest, so I can relate! Felix (Jack Lemmon) is depressed and suicidal because his marriage is ending, so his poker buddy Oscar (Walter Matthau) saves him and offers to let him stay at his place. Problem solved, except...Oscar is comfortably slobby and Felix is kinda like Martha Stewart on crack. He obsessively cleans, he cooks these fancy little meals, and pretty soon Oscar is ready to strangle him. Would you blame him?

Matthau and Lemmon are fantastic together (this is actually the second of ten films they made together). There's a particularly funny scene where they're at a restaurant and Felix is making this AWFUL noise...he's trying to clear his sinuses or something. Oscar has WTF written all over his face; it's SO funny. There's also a scene with these two British sisters that Oscar is trying to snag, and Felix is so awkward but the girls fall for how sensitive he is, haha!
Their chemistry together is so great...they just don't make them like this anymore. Heaven forbid they try to remake this nowadays...the charm is in the era, in the rhythm of their speech, in their compatibility as actors. It's good stuff!

The moral of the story: don't live with your friends because you will soon hate them. Okay? Okay!
PS This movie is streamable on Netflix so you should hop to it!

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