More Like Mildly Perturbed Fogies

If you grew up in the 1960s and 1970s (which I did not) then you grew up with the comedic duo of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Although their first film together was 1966's The Fortune Cookie, their most famous film was, undeniably, 1968's The Odd Couple. Based on the Neil Simmon stage play of the same name (and with a screenplay also written by Simmon), the film became a massive hit, recouping $44.5 Mil (an absolutely astounding amount of money at the time) against a budget of $1.2 Mil. This led Lemmon and Matthau to revisit their comedic pairing time and again over the next three decades across a total of ten co-starring films. Many were successful enough, but most failed to rekindle the kind of Box Office success that The Odd Couple found.

The film that came the closest was Grumpy Old Men. Released in 1993, this film tried to find something akin to the acerbic comedic patter that worked so well in The Odd Couple. The dynamic is different, lacking the "slob v snob" style of that famous duo, instead going for a more vague, "we hate each other because we hate each other" dynamic. It works well enough, but does lack the fun bite of the 1968 dynamic. And, really, that's what holds this film back from really being a comedic winner: it lacks bite. It's fun, sure, and manages to be inoffensively funny at times, but without real bite to drive the "grumpiness" between characters, it never truly reaches comedic greatness.

The story is about two retirees, John Gustafson Jr. (Jack Lemmon) and Max Goldman (Walter Matthau). The two were once friends years and years ago, growing up right next door to each other. But (as we learn eventually in the movie), their friendship fell apart when they both fell for the same woman. John won her heart and Max never let the grudge go for the next four decades (even though he then met the perfect woman for him and they settled down and had their own family). Ever since, they've been snipping at each other, throwing barbs and pulling pranks, a low-grade armistice between their two warring factions (even though they get along great with each other's adult kids and would do anything for each other's families).

Then along comes Ariel Truax (Ann-Margret), an artsy older woman who moves into the house across the street from the two men. Each finds her interesting and attractive and they'd both love to date her... if they could get up the courage to ask. When they do eventually make their moves, Ariel end up choosing John as the guy she'd like to be with, even if she does still want to be friends with Max. This rekindles their low-grade war, and the pranks and sniping starts up in earnest once more. For two men that were once friends, it seems like nothing will ever end the enmity between them.

It's had to say that Grumpy Old Men really has much of a plot. It's a collection of scenes, sometimes about Ariel, sometimes just with the guys pulling pranks or getting into trouble. I'd almost describe it like a road trip movie without the road trip, a series of skits about the two old men being grumpy while, occasionally, trying to move some kind of story vaguely forward. It's loose, and shaggy, but it almost works in a kind of way. A hangout film where you can just sit back and let these guys grump at each other for 104 minutes.

Certainly in 1993 that was a good enough formula for Box Office success, but I do think the looseness of the plot holds the film back now. Watching this film alongside the Harold and Kumar films gives me something to really compare and contrast, and in the case of Grumpy Old Men, what the film really needs is either more antics (like Harold and Kumar) to keep things lively, or more story to give the film better direction. It sits somewhere in the middle and feels a little too shaggy for its own good.

Part of the issue is that the antics of the old men really don't blossom into anything too funny. The pranks they pull on each other, like screwing with a remote control, or breaking a fishing pole, wouldn't even make the outtake reel of a Z-grade Home Alone movie. I get that the producers wanted this film to have a sweeter edge to it, to not feel malicious at all, but that just leads to the movie feeling like it has no bite. Edgier would have been better. Pranks that could have been done by Kevin McAllister (without the threat of actual homicide) were needed to sell the "Grumpy" part of Grumpier Old Men.

Where the film finds real life is in its actually story moments. The blossoming friendship, and then romance, between Ariel and the men. The two guys hating each other while, at the same time, being the best of friends (even if they'd never admit it). Their discussions about love, and loss, and looking forward. There's real, solid friendships here, good chemistry among the leads that could really sell a better story, a mix of romance and bromance. Those moments are where the film finds its heart, and its real momentum, and if the film could have focused on that more I think it would have been even better.

Or, hell, it could have just been funnier. The height of the comedy comes from two sources. One, the low-grade snipping the two men, which is mostly then saying "moron" and "putz" to each other whenever they meet up. And two, the improv comedy of Burgess Meredith. In the film, Meredith play's John's father, and the aging actor got to have a grand time being sarcastic, acerbic, and as dirty with his jokes as a PG-13 movie released in 1993 would allow. He's at his best, in fact, in the outtake reel that plays at the end of the movie, where all of his improvised lines are strung together for some really comedic effect. It just would have been nice if the rest of the film could have had that level of comedic energy.

I think it might just be a case of the film needing a bit more time in the editing bay. The cut we got is okay, but it lacks pop and energy. Tightening the film by five minutes or so to keep the pace up, and maybe working in more of the improv humor or funnier takes on lines could have helped some. Of course, maybe another draft on the script to up the edge could have worked as well. It's hard to say where in the production process the film lost its bite (if it even had any) but the film product feels too safe, even a little milquetoast, when more grumpier edge seems to be called for.

Whatever the case, this is a film that, in the three decades since it's release, has largely fallen by the wayside. It was a respectable hit back in the day, but it's rarely ever discussed anymore. When people think of Lemmon and Matthau, they go to The Odd Couple (as they should, as that film is legitimately funny), not Grumpy Old Men. There's a better version of their dynamic that hasn't ever fallen out of circulation. If you really want to see every modest film from 1993, then Grumpy Old Men is fine, but it's not a film you'll really need to revisit all that often.

And as for the sequel, Grumpier Old Men, the less said about it, the better...