Seems Like Old Times

Nick is a writer with a quiet life who harms nobody. One day two men force him at gunpoint to take part in a bank robbery. The cameras record him and he becomes a wanted man. He has nowhere to go and turns up at his former wife Glenda's house. Glenda is a public defender and her new husband is the district attorney, who is campaigning to be governor. Without telling her husband she hides Nick in the house. Jay Sandrich directs from a screenplay by Neil Simon. Chevy Chase plays Nick, Goldie Hawn plays Glenda and Charles Grodin plays the attorney. Neil Simon is known in American comedy as a writer of dialogue, and the film follows his classical construction: a single misunderstanding, a lie that grows, and everyone gathered in one room at the end. The humour connects to Glenda's work; she employs her unemployed former clients in the house, so it is permanently crowded. Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn appeared together in several films and this is among the known examples. Charles Grodin's character is the best thing in it; the man keeps trying to stay calm and the comedy comes out of the effort. Its limit is structure; the plot is formulaic and the ending resolves as expected. Who it is for: viewers who like classic American comedy and dialogue driven films. Who it is not for: the humour is of its time, the pacing is irregular, and the narrative holds no surprise.