California Suite (1978)

Don't Believe the Hype

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Jane Fonda plays a full-on, complete bitch in this movie. Which makes sense, since she is in real life! Yes, her hatred of our soldiers and her siding with the vicious North Vietnamese has made it so my stomach completely turns just at the sight of her.But, Hollywood loves Fonda to death since she strongly reflects their "values," such as they are. Also, the film offers a "benefit" for Cosby haters. They will enjoy screaming at the TV whenever he appears! Alan Alda does his routine Alan Alda routine. Herb Edelman plays a seriously creepy, almost-borderline-pedophiliac guy in a track suit. Maggie Smith ironically plays an actress worrying about winning an Oscar, where she herself won an Oscar for being in this movie. Her performance is routine, but maybe 1978 was a slow year in her category.Having a jazz score is a good idea, but it's more maudlin smooth jazz that belongs on Muzak than in a movie. Everything else in the movie is routine.As with most of Neil Simon's work, there are few laughs. I only laughed during Walter Matthau's segment. And, that is because of Matthau being great, not because of Simon. The Pryor/Cosby segment is embarrassing, to put it mildly.This Ken Levine dude on Turner Classic Movies (TCM), here in the United States, introduced this and other Neil Simon movies this month. He was a writer on M*A*S*H, no not Robert Altman's classic, but the TV series that Altman absolutely hated! That this introducer guy considers Simon great shows what his "taste" in comedy is! Luckily, this film isn't as flat-out awful as "Come Blow Your Horn" the 1963 absolute misfire with Frank Sinatra and Tony Bill."California Suite" is un-entertaining from beginning to end. Watch it, if you like that kind of thing!*** (3 Out of 10 Stars)

This movie is mildly enjoyable, thanks to the amazing cast alone. With a cast like this, it should have been a lot better than it was. Anyway, Michael Caine & Maggie Smith play a rather disjointed couple coming from New York to attend The Oscars. Jane Fonda & Alan Alda are no longer together, argue constantly about custody of their daughter. Bill Cosby & Richard Pryor's wives come to play tennis and chill, but chaos ensues when they find out there is only one room vacant. Walter Matthau has too much to drink and sleeps with a prostitute. The stories are all interesting enough, but none of them are all that dynamic. Matthau has some great comic sequences, but i'd have to say Cosby & Pryor were the least interesting. It wasn't all that funny. The best is a tie between Caine & Smith's and Fonda & Alda. If it wasn't for a cast, this would have been very mediocre. 6/10

I'm biased - I'm a Neil Simon fan who loves the concept of the "Suite" plays (on stage, each act is a one-act play using the same set, with the actors playing different roles each act). Obviously, because the stories are intertwined in the film, they couldn't do that (they didn't do in "London Suite" either).But, here's my complaint: the intertwining is sloppy. We'll sometimes spend twenty or so minutes with a plot, then get a quick cutaway with another (Walter Matthau's plot doesn't really kick in until an hour's passed; Alan Alda disappears after forty-five minutes).Despite this balancing flaw, there are goodies to be found: Visitors From New York: Alda and Jane Fonda have great chemistry (and, of course, she looks great!): one can really believe they were a couple. That being said, he's pretty weak, letting her get in a lot of bitchy lines, and barely sticking up for himself. Three stars.Visitors From London: A lot of people think this is the best segment, and I'm one of them. Once again, Maggie Smith and Michael Caine give excellent performances (but there's a touch of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" throughout the whole scenario) - she deserved her Oscar (and I love that they filmed at an actual Oscars ceremony). Four stars.Visitors From Philadelphia: First of all, Elaine May was reminding me so much of Louise Lasser. That being said, I could totally buy her and Matthau together, and I love how calm she was upon her discovery (she gets a great line regarding what she's gonna do). Three and a half stars.Visitors From Chicago: Unfairly criticized. Sure, it's slapstick in the extreme (it gives us an idea how "The Out of Towners" may have looked if confined to "Plaza Suite," which it was intended for), but there's something quite cool about two very different masters of stand up, Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby, going up against one another ("clean" vs. "dirty"?). And, you just know that a few weeks later, the characters got together and had a good laugh about it. Three and a quarter stars.Throw in a nice credit sequence, with David Hockney paintings, and you have a fine way to spend two hours.

Neil Simon focuses his attention on a variety of people at a hotel in this 1978 comedy hit.Walter Matthau certainly has a penchant as a hotel guest. Remember him with Maureen Stapleton and several other ladies in another hotel farce comedy-drama?Matthau, as always, is hilarious when he attempts to hide a hooker from his wife. It seems that Elaine May is always the naive victim in films. Remember her in 1972's "The Heartbreak Kid?"The real acting kudos here goes to Maggie Smith for a gem of a supporting Oscar-winning performance in this film. Smith plays an actress at the hotel who has been nominated for an Oscar. A win would mean a tremendous comeback for her. Naturally, she loses. How many people have won Oscars for playing an Oscar loser in a film? Judy Garland accomplished the opposite in 1954 in "A Star is Born." In the film she is an actress who wins the academy award but in real-life competition lost it to Grace Kelly for "The Country Girl." Only the lord knows why.Smith is just grand as she prances around the room delivering memorable one-liners. This is just a gem of a film.