California Suite

That's the one thing I remembered about this Neil Simon comedy, Maggie Smith saying "That's not funny, that's bizarre" I had never heard the word "bizarre" like that. Bee-zaaaarr, or something like that but Maggie Smith uses it brilliantly as an irresistible comic tool. I remember being kind of put off because Maggie won an Oscar for this over Meryl Streep for The Deer Hunter but, watching it now. I understand. Maggie Smith is fantastic and her marital banter with Michael Caine is a total delight. The movie, as a movie is a whole other story. Flimsy and dated with a musical score that may remind you of some of most generic TV movie. Jane Fonda is great, Elaine May and Walter Matthau, hilarious but it also has Bill Cosby, hard to watch now and a hilarious Richard Pryor. Herbert Ross directs respectfully but without any cinematic ambitions. Maggie Smith and Michael Caine however make the whole thing worth it.

An ensemble cast that dreams are made of is present in this film, and all deliver quite well, even Walter Matthau who goes a bit over-the-top. Smith deservedly won an Oscar for her role as a screen actress loses her first Oscar nomination in a very long career. As her husband, Caine is also good, but the next two best performances come from Fonda and Alda as a bickering divorced couple. Those four performers, however, only cover two out of four tales in this film, and the other two are not as well as acted and neither are they filled with the same quality of witty dialogue. It is bit weird to watch the overall film, as it becomes fragmented by the transitions between each of the stories, and towards the end the lesser interesting tales dominate. With just the Fonda/Alda and Smith/Caine stories, this is excellent, very well written stuff. With all four put together, it is still quite interesting stuff, but nothing too great.

I've always liked this movie, ever since I saw it in the theater as a 12-year-old. (With my church youth group, no less -- what were they thinking??) It's flawed, but generally fun, and I like the sun-soaked, palm-fringed atmosphere.

Maggie Smith is the undisputed standout. Her portrayal is brilliant and she and Michael Caine fling one-liners at each other with biting abandon. I've always liked both Jane Fonda and Alan Alda, so I enjoy their storyline too, though their exchanges seem forced and a little too clever. I'm a Cosby fan, but his scenes with Richard Pryor are uncomfortable -- it's troubling that the film's only black characters are relegated to brute physical comedy. Walter Matthau and Elaine May do a great job, but I never liked the hooker skit -- not sure why.

I buy very few films, but I do own this one, and over the years I've watched it so many times I know all the lines...

Neil Simon received an Oscar nomination for adapting his own hit play to the screen, though his writing seems to be caught in a perpetual time-warp. No subject discussed seems fresh, and all his one-liners and tiresome penchant for name-dropping would fall flat without the help of some talented actors to keep things afloat. Hotel in Beverly Hills houses Jane Fonda and Alan Alda as bickering ex-marrieds; Walter Matthau as a husband trying to hide a hooker from wife Elaine May; Michael Caine as the put-upon husband of Oscar-nominated actress Maggie Smith (who really did win an Oscar); and Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor as accident-prone husbands vacationing with their wives. Aside from the acidic verbal jousting from Caine and Smith (in the film's best episode), this comedy directed by Herbert Ross pretty much congeals midway through. Matthau's exaggerated angst is funny, but this seems rote material for the actor (though he and Elaine May are well-matched as ever). Fonda easily upstages Alda after changing into her bikini (her figure is so fabulous, one gets the feeling the actress may have accepted her dim role for the sole excuse to show it off). The Cosby-Pryor segment is a slapstick torpedo. Overall, there's too much physical shtick and not enough humanity in "California Suite" to make it the sophisticated laugh-fest Simon buffs were touting it as. **1/2 from ****

Maggie Smith's passing this past Friday motivated me to revisit this fondly remembered 1978 comedy directed by Herbert Ross. The film consists of Neil Simon's series of four overlapping mini-plays set at the tony Beverly Hills Hotel, a SoCal version of his previous "Plaza Suite". The standout story starred Smith and Michael Caine as an Oscar-nominated film actress and her bisexual antiques dealer husband in town for the ceremony. Atypical for Simon, the screenplay has the incisive, back-and-forth wit of a British drawing room farce delivered impeccably by the two stars. Smith gets the best lines commenting on her nonexistent hump and her resemblance to a steel-belted radial tire. The other storylines feel dated and pale by comparison - Alan Alda and an especially brittle Jane Fonda as a bickering divorced couple, Walter Matthau hiding an unconscious hooker from his wife Elaine May, and especially the now cancelled Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor as warring doctors whose chief victims are their wives. Do yourself a favor and fast forward to the Smith-Caine scenes to appreciate their ample talents. Their scenes are a 10, the rest around 5.