The Odd Couple II

A comedy set in California. Felix and Oscar have not seen each other for thirty years. The two once shared a flat. One obsessively tidy, the other entirely a mess. Now they are in separate cities and separate lives. A telephone call comes. Oscar's son is marrying Felix's daughter. Both of them have to go to the wedding. They meet on the aircraft. The same row. From there the film is a journey. They will drive from the airport. Nothing goes right. They take the wrong car. Then the car burns. They get on a bus. It is going the wrong way. They get into a lorry. The driver leaves them in the middle of the road. They cause an accident. A car goes off a cliff because of them. The police arrest them. The narrative lines these up one after another and stops nowhere. Felix makes a list at every incident. Oscar looks for a cigarette at every incident. They argue constantly. Thirty years have passed and nothing has changed. What the narrative is interested in is not friendship but habit: its idea is that these two cannot bear each other and cannot give each other up. They meet two women on the road. Both speak Spanish and the situation gets worse. They reach the wedding. There is a surprise at the end and it is entirely the expected kind. This is the sequel to the first film, made thirty years later. The first was from 1968 and adapted from a play. The screenplay is again by Neil Simon. Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau worked together on more than ten films and this is among their last. Howard Deutch directed. Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Richard Riehle and Christine Baranski are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who liked the first film and wants to watch the two actors together. Who it is not for: anyone looking for novelty; the narrative is a chain of accidents and the jokes are far behind the original.