Despite its heavy promotion and legendary all time cast, 1993’s “Grumpy Old Men” managed to slip by me unviewed for twenty years – akin to the way Thanksgiving slips by as the holiday ugly stepchild, sandwiched between its more popular siblings Halloween and Christmas. The comedy stars a handful of aging Hollywood legends (4 of the 6 stars would pass away between 1997 and 2005) and while it has its shortcomings, does a decent job of entertaining its viewers.
A festive wintery start immediately puts you in the holiday mood, taking us to the story’s setting of the quaint small town of Wabasha, Minnesota in the days prior to Thanksgiving. A pair of crotchety neighbors are introduced; John Gustafson (Jack Lemmon) and Max Goldman (Walter Matthau). The two curmudgeons have been feuding with each other since 1938; a feud that has raged for over fifty years.
The long standing neighbors obviously have an intense history with each other, hurling insults like snowballs in a contemptible way. We see John and Max eating TV dinners and playing chess by themselves, making us understand that the feud runs so deep each man would choose solitude over the company of the other.
The pairing of Lemmon and Matthau is a thing of beauty. I won’t pretend to say that I’ve seen these two greats in any of the other numerous films they worked on together in a span of thirty years, such as “The Odd Couple” or “Buddy Buddy,” but the great contrast between the two comes off in a genuinely funny way. With the always eloquent Lemmon (who dazzled me with his performance in the remake of “Twelve Angry Men“), and the brutish and blunt Matthau, the true friendship the men had for each other comes through.
The writing suffers at times with some childish laughs inserted for no apparent reason other than to watch the old men do and say silly things, and of course two years later a sequel was released which I’m sure the creators had planned out long before even finishing the first one. Ozzie Davis plays Chuck, a friend of John and Max who runs the town bait shop – a shop that looks more like my mom’s kitchen. Chuck offers a glimpse of sanity as a level headed presence in the midst of the fight. Twilight Zone veteran Burgess Meredith plays John’s father, but is little more than a sex-craved potty mouthed cartoon with an offensive and vulgar disposition.
The battle between John and Max rages to a new front with the introduction of a feisty new neighbor, the vivacious Ariel (Ann -Margaret) who each man takes an affection for. “What can make two grown men spend most of their lives fighting each other?” Ariel asks as the cause of the feud is slowly uncovered.
“Grumpy Old Men” does a humorous job of showing us the life of an average senior. One hysterical scene depicts John and Max discussing the passing of mutual friends with banter about what the better way to die would be. In a way, the movie demonstrates to us that the transition to being old isn’t as scary as most of us fear. With hit or miss comedy, the story would have been better served having the battle between the two be fought with more fervor as that is where the laughs lay. Despite a runtime of just 101 minutes, the pacing gets dull and slow moving as it goes from comedy to love story.
The movie also contains a host of predictable extras such as John’s daughter Melanie (Daryl Hannah) and Max’s son Jacob (Kevin Pollak) who are of course both single, and of course both have had crushes on each other since childhood. But I guess that’s what is to be expected from the majority of holiday themed stories.
“Grumpy Old Men” is a good changeup for your holiday viewings. Be warned. While parts are funny, for every laugh there is a shrug. The pairing of Lemmon and Matthau is great, but the story itself falls far short of their legacy.
by – Matt Christopher
