Neil Simon kind of owned the 1970's/80's. Either he had a new play coming out or one of his old ones was being made into a movie. I saw many of them in one incarnation or another -- 'The Odd Couple', 'Brighton Beach Memoirs', 'Biloxi Blues', 'California Suite', etc. -- but giving them another look decades later I'd have to say my patience with Mr. Simon's work has worn about as thin as it can go. Simply put, his characters never shut up. When they leave the stage and venture onto film, this becomes a problem.
'Plaza Suite' is an excellent example of the overly-talky, stagnant result obtained from an unimaginatively filmed play. Walter Matthau, a Simon staple, plays three roles, in three separate stories taking place in the same seventh-floor suite at the Plaza Hotel in New York. Maureen Stapleton is so annoying as Matthau's wife in the first segment that I found myself wanting to marry her just so I could have the pleasure of leaving her. The second vignette is so dull I almost turned it off. In the third, Matthau's character climbs out the window of the suite onto a ledge. As I was thinking back to my time living in New York, doubting the fact that there is in fact a ledge at the seventh-floor level, the film obligingly cuts to a shot of a man on a ledge at the Plaza obviously at the fourth floor, and there are none higher. Thanks, movie saved me Googling it. What arrogant writer would not only state a falsehood about a well-known landmark, but then show that what he has just stated is untrue? Neil Simon, folks; owner of the 70's and 80's. If he wants a ledge on the 7th floor of the Plaza, they'd better start building one for him. He's Neil Simon.
There is, naturally, an exception to every rule. I enjoyed 'Murder By Death' very much, and I even think I like it better now than I did when it first came out. Stellar cast, excellent writing, checked off all the boxes. 'The Goodbye Girl' is another one that holds up very well. I also have a place in my heart for one of Simon's lesser-known works, 'I Ought to be in Pictures'. But 'Plaza Suite' and its ilk have seen their day. Mr. Simon is a prolific writer, but his writing is repetitive and many of his characters seem one-dimensional in this day and age. If you have the chance to see a local community theater do 'Plaza Suite', you might enjoy it in a retro kind of way. Don't bother with the film adaptation.
'Plaza Suite' is an excellent example of the overly-talky, stagnant result obtained from an unimaginatively filmed play. Walter Matthau, a Simon staple, plays three roles, in three separate stories taking place in the same seventh-floor suite at the Plaza Hotel in New York. Maureen Stapleton is so annoying as Matthau's wife in the first segment that I found myself wanting to marry her just so I could have the pleasure of leaving her. The second vignette is so dull I almost turned it off. In the third, Matthau's character climbs out the window of the suite onto a ledge. As I was thinking back to my time living in New York, doubting the fact that there is in fact a ledge at the seventh-floor level, the film obligingly cuts to a shot of a man on a ledge at the Plaza obviously at the fourth floor, and there are none higher. Thanks, movie saved me Googling it. What arrogant writer would not only state a falsehood about a well-known landmark, but then show that what he has just stated is untrue? Neil Simon, folks; owner of the 70's and 80's. If he wants a ledge on the 7th floor of the Plaza, they'd better start building one for him. He's Neil Simon.
There is, naturally, an exception to every rule. I enjoyed 'Murder By Death' very much, and I even think I like it better now than I did when it first came out. Stellar cast, excellent writing, checked off all the boxes. 'The Goodbye Girl' is another one that holds up very well. I also have a place in my heart for one of Simon's lesser-known works, 'I Ought to be in Pictures'. But 'Plaza Suite' and its ilk have seen their day. Mr. Simon is a prolific writer, but his writing is repetitive and many of his characters seem one-dimensional in this day and age. If you have the chance to see a local community theater do 'Plaza Suite', you might enjoy it in a retro kind of way. Don't bother with the film adaptation.