Grumpy Old Men (1993)

“Putz, Shmuck, Moron..”, the list of insults exchanged between the love-hate cousins, Jack Lemmon and Walter Mathau keeps you in splits as they re-ignite the chemistry that made movies like ‘Odd Couple’ and ‘Fortune Cookie’,  classics.  ‘Grumpy Old Men’ is one of the last comedy duel films, something of a rarity these days. It tides over the simple plot line to give you charming moments, good laughs and some pulls at the heart strings.

The story revolves around two grumpy neighbors, John Gustafson and Max Goldman, who can’t stand each other. They use insults for pleasantries in a war that started in the 1930s. The bone of contention between the two is a woman, who both wanted, but who chose John. Max felt cheated despite marrying an equally wonderful woman. Both spend their days ice fishing, where John spends time with his 91 year old father and suffers an inferiority complex to Max when it comes to snaring fish. With both men widowers now, and John claiming to not have had sex in 15 years, a beautiful widow enters their lives and moves in across the street. The turf war begins again. Will Max be denied again this time?

Films like ‘Grumpy Old Men’ rely a lot on the cutesy nature of the characters, funny and quirky interactions and witty 1-liners. There are plenty of them peppered right through to the end, making the lack of a solid plot bearable. Donald Petrie’s direction subtly unveils a subtext of loneliness that is shown delicately in the film, albeit with a light touch. At the end of the day, John and Max are lonely old men, who have their TVs for company while eating a ready to eat dinner, who envy friends who die in their sleep as being ‘lucky’. The film also touches upon the last grasp, the yearning for another shot at a relationship, at some thrills and at 70 years, an orgasm. Guess what ‘taking the old one-eye to the optometrist’ means!

The acting honors go to the incredibly funny duo of Lemmon-Mathau, each a great actor in his own right, but with distinct styles. Lemmon is a nervous, edgy actor and Mathau, a slouch sloppy mover with a dead pan expression to kill for. The surprise packet is the 91 year old Burgess Meredith, famous for playing Mickey in the ‘Rocky’ series and Penguin in the ‘Batman’ TV series. His character, John’s father’s obsession with sex is portrayed superbly by Meredith as he implores his son to ‘mount her’ because the first 90 years of his life have passed by in a flash and it might be too late to do it. Ann-Margret as the love interest is dishy enough at her age to attract two over the hill men.

‘Grumpy Old Men’ is good clean laughs.