{"id":4265,"date":"2024-10-01T21:31:40","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T21:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4265"},"modified":"2024-10-13T18:32:18","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T22:32:18","slug":"california-suite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/01\/california-suite\/","title":{"rendered":"California Suite"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"California Suite<\/strong> (1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 103 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, thematic elements)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Herbert Ross\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Neil Simon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Claude Bolling\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: David M. Walsh\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 22, 1978 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jane Fonda, Alan Alda, Maggie Smith, Michael Caine, Walter Matthau, Elaine May, Herb Edelman, Denise Galik, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, Gloria Gifford, Sheila Frazier, Dana Plato.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $29M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ve always had an odd relationship with Neil Simon movies. The acclaimed playwright has a gift for witty dialogue which is the problem. It\u2019s witty, but not authentic. Real people don\u2019t talk like the characters in Neil Simon plays or the subsequent film adaptations. It sounds scripted even to the untrained ear. Also, there\u2019s a lot of it. His works tend to be too talky. I distinctly recall being bored by I Ought to Be in Pictures when I watched it on cable at 15. I\u2019ve never felt compelled to revisit it so I don\u2019t know what I\u2019d think of it now at 56.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ve liked a few of Simon\u2019s films like The Odd Couple, Murder by Death, The Goodbye Girl and Seems Like Old Times. I\u2019ve also disliked several like Chapter Two, Only When I Laugh, The Slugger\u2019s Wife and The Marrying Man. I\u2019m going to put California Suite <\/strong>in the like column. The 1978 comedy, which deservedly earned Maggie Smith the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, is an anthology piece set at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Similar to his earlier work Plaza Suite, it consists of four stories centered on guests staying at the hotel. Let me give you a quick rundown.<\/p>\n

– \u201cVisitors from New York\u201d has a divorced couple played by Alan Alda (M*A*S*H) and Jane Fonda (Barefoot in the Park) fighting over custody of their teenage daughter (Plato, Diff\u2019rent Strokes) who wants to stay in California with her dad.<\/p>\n

– \u201cVisitors from London\u201d centers on aging British actress Diana Barrie (Smith, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) who\u2019s in town for the Oscars. She\u2019s one of the nominated actresses and is understandably nervous. Her husband Sidney (Caine, Alfie), a closeted gay slowly coming out in public, can\u2019t offer much more than his emotional support.<\/p>\n

– \u201cVisitors from Philadelphia\u201d is a bedroom farce featuring Walter Matthau (The Odd Couple) as a married man trying to keep his wife (May, The Heartbreak Kid) out of the bedroom. Why? He\u2019s hiding a hooker (Galik, Melvin and Howard) who\u2019s passed out in the bed. She was a gift from his playboy brother (Edelman, The Odd Couple).<\/p>\n

– \u201cVisitors from Chicago\u201d deals with two well-to-do black couples on vacation. They run into disaster at every turn from a malfunctioning rental car to a lost reservation that puts one of them in a room with severe plumbing issues. The husbands, played by Bill Cosby (Uptown Saturday Night) and Richard Pryor (Silver Streak), are at each other\u2019s throats from the start. They decide to settle things on the tennis court.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ll start at the bottom. The Chicago segment, which also features Sheila Frazier (Super Fly) and Gloria Gifford (D.C. Cab) as the wives, is the weakest. Most of the time, it\u2019s clumsy and desperate for laughs. The comic timing is noticeably way off. It resorts to slapstick humor that might have been funny in the days of the silents. It\u2019s a shame because both Cosby and Pryor are funny guys. I like the two actresses as well. The material fails them in a big way.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Philadelphia vignette has a few laughs, but it\u2019s all stuff we\u2019ve seen before. It too tries too hard to amuse. Matthau plays his usual grumpy self while May plays the stereotypical Jewish wife. The final scene is a nice punchline though.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The London story is easily the best of the bunch. It\u2019s more drama than comedy in its depiction of an aging, insecure actress looking for validation in her career and personal life. Smith is wonderful in the role. Her chemistry with Caine, who also delivers a spot-on performance, is solid. They have this one great scene where they let out their pent-up feelings and frustrations. This is the true centerpiece of California Suite<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The New York segment is actually the funniest. Alda and Fonda create comic magic as an ex-couple with unresolved feelings. She\u2019s a tightly wound sort who doesn\u2019t want to lose her daughter. He\u2019s more laid back. Their banter is passive-aggressive funny. They exchange quips and insults with underlying fondness for each other. Yes, everything they say sounds like the work of a playwright or screenwriter, but it\u2019s funny so I\u2019ll give it a pass.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Herbert Ross (The Sunshine Boys), California Suite<\/strong> is pretty good. Unfortunately, it\u2019s hampered by its total unevenness. It abruptly shifts from drama to slapstick comedy. It\u2019s hard to reconcile the poignancy of the London story with the silliness of the Chicago one. Still, the film benefits from a first-class cast. All of the players- Alda, Fonda, Smith and Caine in particular- give great performances. Look for James Coburn and Richard Burton in uncredited cameos.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Overall, I like California Suite<\/strong>. It\u2019s definitely interesting. It\u2019s flawed but funny. It\u2019s a total product of its time. BTW, this is my first time seeing it. I\u2019ve been meaning to watch it for years. I\u2019m glad I finally got the chance thanks to Tubi.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California Suite (1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 103 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, thematic elements)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Herbert Ross\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Neil Simon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Claude Bolling\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: David M. Walsh\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 22, 1978 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jane Fonda, Alan Alda, Maggie Smith, Michael Caine, Walter Matthau, Elaine May, Herb Edelman, Denise Galik, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, Gloria Gifford, Sheila […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/California-Suite-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4265"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4625,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4265\/revisions\/4625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}