Directed by Elaine May
Written by Neil Simon from a story by Bruce Jay Friedman
1972/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube
Mr. Corcoran: You don’t know what determination is. I eat determination for breakfast.
This riff on The Graduate (1967) pales in comparison. Viewed on its own I thought it was pretty funny, if mean-spirited.
Lenny Cantrell (Charles Grodin) is a sporting goods salesman in New York City. We will learn during the course of the movie that he is awkward and clueless but at the same time arrogant and driven. He has a conventional Jewish courtship with Lila Kalodny (Jeannie Berlin – May’s daughter IRL) and a modest wedding. They honeymoon in Miami. They have saved sex for the wedding night. Lenny instantly learns that some of Lila’s quirks get on his last nerve. When Lenny and Lila visit the beach, she gets a terrible sunburn.
He goes to the beach alone the next day. There he meets hot, seductive, wealthy and gorgeous young Kelly Corcoran (Cibyll Shepherd), who is visiting from Minnesota with her family. Although he has been married but three days and is with his wife on his honeymoon, he begins an all out blitz to win Kelly’s hand. Kelly’s father (Eddie Albert) is not keen on of his daughter dating a newlywed and learns to hate Lenny with a vengence.
The first hurdle we must overcome in watching this movie is accepting the idea that someone like Cybill Shepherd could possibly be attracted to the looks, behavior, or conversation of someone like Grodin’s character. He’s not even smart. And, it’s true, this is a lot of behaving badly with no one to root for. On the other hand, every scene with Berlin or Albert is a priceless gem to me. Despite the listing of this in The Book, I think May’s A New Leaf (1971) is a better example of her work.
Jeannie Berlin and Eddie Albert were nominated for Oscars in the Supporting categories.
This movie was such a revelation! You expect Charles Grodin to dominate, but I was very impressed with Cybil Shepherd as well.
They would remake it now with Ben Stiller and try to make his awfulness sympathetic and charming (as in Meet the Parents) and it would not work.
No, Grodin’s character has to be perfectly awful for the story to work. His actions are awful.
You have no idea how much I hate Meet the Parents. Ben Stiller’s character is thoughtless and careless. He puts the cat out because it’s bothering him despite being told it’s not an outdoor cat. He starts a fire in the backyard because he’s careless with a cigarette. Ha ha! What a lovable goof, right? Robert DeNiro’s character may be an ass but he’s not wrong to be suspicious of Gaylord Fokker.
I haven’t seen Meet the Parents. The idea of De Niro giving Stiller a lie detector text is appealing. The other stuff you mention not so much.
I can only agree to that assessment. A New Leaf is my preference too.
Isolated, each scene with Eddie Albert is priceless. I just don’t know if it is enough considering the difficulty of watching Grodin’s character.
I think I like it more than you do. I kind of felt like “this is a comic movie character” more than hating the character. Sometimes that trick doesn’t work as you know.