Film: The Odd Couple

Director: Gene Saks
Genre: Comedy
Source: USA (1968)
Rating: G
Location/Format: Netflix Instant Streaming
Grade: C+

It's clear that The Odd Couple is from an era in which America is in transition. On a superficial level it's all very clean-cut and wholesome, centering around a plutonic male relationship that focuses on the mundane: poker night, housekeeping, finding romantic interests. On the other hand there is a subversive element to the film that could reflect the counterculture bubbling beneath the surface all over the country: gender roles being subverted, the nuclear American family being undercut (both Felix and Unger are fresh from divorce), an implicit need to cut loose and let go. That subversion doesn't go far enough, however, and it keeps the story in territory a little more stale than I would have hoped. Felix may need to lighten up, but Oscar also needs to settle down, and the film ends up coming across a little more like lukewarm tea than I would have hoped.

Of course, there's still plenty to enjoy here. Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau (who always looks like an old man, and is pushing 50 here) are a fine comedic duo, and they play off each other perfectly. There's a reason the phrase "odd couple" has become such common shorthand for a mismatched pair that works, and there's a reason people still wanted to see the two together thirty years later. It's not their strongest work--Jack Lemmon has yet to top The Apartment or Some Like It Hot for me, and Matthau's more dramatic (and imposing) turns in Charade or The Taking of Pelham 123 grab me a little more than his curmudgeon--but it's still plenty entertaining. Though I wish we could have seen more of the transition from Oscar's pig sty to the perfectly maintained apartment it becomes, there is enough to keep the story moving. Neil Simon's script remains entertaining ("It took me three hours to figure out "F.U." was Felix Unger!"), and the film does offer a few unexpected moments. I was not expecting it to open, for example, with a long scene of Felix contemplating suicide, but the black comedy works well and sets up a really funny scene at the poker table as his buddies all worry about how to handle his depression. It's a little saccharine, perhaps, but I can see it straining against more traditional film conservatism, and it has the desired impact.

I wish I could say the same for the ending. The movie builds to a strong climactic argument between the two men, and then it just sort of seems to resolve itself. I'm not sure whether it was giving us an implied assurance that whatever schisms exist in society we ultimately need and want each other, or if it just lost steam. What it felt like was that there was a scene missing, and so the film as a whole left me with a bit of disappointment.  

Either way, there were still several laughs to be had, and though it didn't hit all cylinders for me, I can see why it became so popular. Definitely one I would show a younger set to show them older movies can still be quite entertaining. 

Alternate Film Title: "Homophobic or Subverting Homophobia?"