The Marriage Fool

"The Marriage Fool" (also known as "Love After Death") is an excellent made for TV movie. Much of this is because it addresses an important topic that is seldom talked about...widowers remarrying. Often, their children react very badly to 'new mom' and do a lot to undermine these second marriages...and so it's nice to see this addressed here.

The story begins when Frank (Walter Matthau) is attending his wife's funeral. Soon after, his son, Robert (John Stamos) convinces him to get out and have fun...and Frank does that. In fact, he soon meets Florence (Carol Burnett) and after whirlwind courtship, they decide to get married...and Frank's kids are, at best, ambivalent towards this.

At the same time, Robert begins realizing that despite his looks and success on the job, he's lonely....and he has a phobia about commitment. So, the story is not about Frank's journey but Robert's.

This is a very sweet film and it's nice to see Matthau in his penultimate movie. The cast is quite good and while the story has no huge surprises, it's sweet and well worth seeing. And, I also noticed that Stamos is quite nice here...one of his better performances. Overall, a very enjoyable film which will likely leave you feeling happy.