How does one describe Walter Matthau's face? "Weathered" sounds
too much like a cowboy. "Craggy" implies good looks. But have
you ever seen a paper lunch bag that has been scrunched into a kid's back
pack? Well, Matthau not only looks like that, he has a screen temperament
like that. He's been confined too long, but gets to let loose here as an
aging New York Jewish labor radical. His straight man in the two-man routine
is the outstanding Ossie Davis. Bringing his own play to the screen, Herb
Gardner maintains the Central Park setting but is never confined by it.
Davis portrays Midge, a man fearful of losing both his sight and his job
as a building superintendent. When we meet them in Central Park, Matthau
has convinced Davis that he is Cuban terrorist, undercover. This is the
first of many fanciful deceptions that keep the despair of old age at bay.
This isn't a movie that is supposed to be believed. It is supposed to
be *felt*, and Matthau makes us feel it. Rated PG-13
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