Jeanskynebu
the audience applauded
Nonureva
Really Surprised!
Crwthod
A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.
Murphy Howard
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
bkoganbing
Neil Simon's three playlet show Plaza Suite turns into a tour de force for Walter
Matthau as he stars in all three which become funnier as the film progresses.The first one pairs Matthau with Maureen Stapleton, the two have rented a suite
at the Plaza for their 23rd or is it their 24th anniversary. They have differing views on that and more than they realize. Matthau's such a romantic he's brought some of his work with him. When Louise Sorel from the office brings
him some revisions it's apparent it's not just his work that needs revising.
This one had some laughs, but strictly of the ironic nature.Matthau is opposite Barbara Harris in the next one. He plays a man from Tenafly, New Jersey who has sought fame and fortune in the west as Horace
Greeley advised. West in the 20th century meant Hollywood and now he's a
hot producer with all the perogatives of that breed.Harris is a girl he left behind and one gets the impression back in the day she
would not have given him the time of day. But now Matthau has mastered the
skill of the casting couch and he lays out a campaign to win this now married
New Jersey housewife. As for Harris it's amazing when you attach a celebrity
status to someone how your view might change.Best of the three by far is the last with Matthau and Lee Grant as the parents of a girl having her wedding at the Plaza Hotel. The bride to be their daughter
Mimsy is having wedding jitters and locks herself in the bathroom. Grant tries
and fails to talk her out and then sends for daddy.Matthau is gradually seeing bankruptcy as the bills for a wedding at the Plaza
pile up and things don't go quite according to plan. But when this crisis occurs
Matthau pulls all the stops out with one of the funniest performances in his
career. He does one of the greatest bits of overacting in a role that had to have it. With all he tries and all the indignities he suffers in his attempts to
get Mimsy out from the john you have to see what does it in the end.On stage Plaza Suite had Don Porter and Maureen Stapleton playing all of the
main roles in the three playlets. This film is a must for Walter Matthau fans.
You will never see him funnier, not in The Odd Couple, not in The Fortune
Cookie, not in anything.
nodemons
I couldn't relate to that other review at all. We're talking about a seriously entertaining film here, I'm not sure exactly what was boring about it. The hilarity was pretty much non-stop, all the roles were delightfully impeccable, and I doubt that the writing could be flawed at all. I can see how the recommendation below points towards "The Royal Tenenbaums" too, obviously the comedy here-in takes a certain understanding to fully sink in. Not to mention the brilliant poignancy it leaves behind."Boring"... feh. That's someone who needs a good hard drink.
Coxer99
Matthau scores in all three vignettes from Neil Simon's long running triumph about different people who stay at a particular room in the posh New York hotel. His three ladies Stapelton, Harris and Grant are also wonderful. This is among the best of Simon's works to be adapted for the screen.
suze-4
I expected this 1971 film to be a bright comedy. Instead I was presented with the filming of a very deep three-part stage play about the dark side of human relationships; only the last of the three stories could really be called funny.A bride-to-be locks herself in the bathroom and her parents go through all kinds of hilarious slapstick agony trying to persuade her to come out. It is free of the darker undertones of the first two vignettes and has a cute surprise ending with a happy message. The other two, while being wry and witty in places, are really commentaries on the nature of man's unfaithfulness and exploitation of women, and women's culpability in allowing that state of affairs to develop and continue.Walter Matthau plays the lead in each of the three stories, which take place in the same suite, 719, of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. He has different leading ladies in each one: Maureen Stapleton, Barbara Harris and Lee Grant. There are a few incidental characters but the stories revolve around the two main characters in each story. The dialogue is quite true to real life, even appearing to be repetitive and meaningless in places as real life conversations can be, but the playwright is taking us in each case to a specific understanding of the characters. There is nothing extraneous even though at first it appears to be cluttered with incidentals.In the first story, a husband and wife check into the Plaza Hotel for their anniversary - and then things begin to fall apart. Maureen Stapleton as the seemingly scatterbrained wife is brilliant in playing both the tragic and comic aspects of this complicated role. As the story unfolds we realize things are not as they appear on the surface.In the second story, a sleazy Hollywood businessman calls up various names in his little black book so that he can have some woman - any woman - come to his suite for sex from 2 to 4 between meetings. The woman from his past whom he persuades to show up is both afraid of the possible seduction and hoping he will talk her into it. This is all too painful and familiar a scenario and anyone will relate to the awkward dance between two individuals who have to try to save face while getting their needs met.If you are looking for a light and fluffy comedy this is not the one to choose. It will disturb you and make you think about the tragic aspects of love, sex and marriage, long after it is over.