I'M NOT RAPPAPORT (57)

Directed by: Herb Gardner

Starring: Walter Matthau, Ossie Davis, Craig T. Nelson, Martha Plimpton

The Pitch: Two old men - one sensible and cautious, the other an eccentric idealist - meet in a park and form an uneasy bond.

Theo Sez: A strangely dated feel about this absorbing, solidly-upholstered version of a hit Broadway play from the 80s : maybe it's a stray reference to the Soviet Union, or the final dedication to Bob Fosse (who died more than a decade ago), or maybe it's that the director is also the playwright, and reluctant to cut his baby up - so that the film, which consists mostly of two old coots arguing in a park, lasts 135 minutes. It all seems a bit old-fashioned, a throwback to the reverential treatment Broadway plays used to get back when they were the lifeblood of Hollywood studios - none of which is necessarily a bad thing : that the film takes its time fits in well with the languid rhythms of its elderly heroes, and also gives it the unhurried feel of a character-study - Matthau in his most substantial role for decades, as a half-crazy old Communist smoking dope, spinning tall tales and trying to hold on to old ideals in a changed world. It's the kind of film that's skilful enough to find a subtle and entertaining metaphor for the old man's stubbornness - the titular schtick, a joky routine where he greets a stranger as a long-lost friend, steadfastly ignoring the other's protests that he's got the wrong man ; but also stagy and ham-handed enough to use said metaphor three separate times, the last one for cheap pathos (he tries it on his daughter as she's walking away, a last-ditch appeal to their shared memories ; she doesn't respond). A less indulgent adaptation might've made for a better movie.