I watched this again after not seeing since it came out in the early 70's. It was a pleasant way to spend an evening, mainly due to Dreyfuss's well-deserved Oscar performance as a more irascible version of his everyman persona. He had just done Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (early Spielberg masterpieces) so his career was riding high.
Marsha Mason is fine, too, as the much put-upon single mom and title character who has just been dumped by her no-account actor boyfriend. She isn't crazy about being forced by circumstances to share her small apartment with yet another one. But Dreyfuss's character is far more interested in getting his career started in New York than in getting into a relationship with this understandably angry woman. Although the apartment is technically his, he just wants a nonaggression pact so he can focus on preparing for his upcoming role as Richard III, an endeavor that proves fraught with enough complications of its own.
The two actors play well against each other and the obligatory cute kid is likeable in an uncontrived way. The movie has a stagey feel to it but this seems appropriate given the basic plot. This is Neil Simon, after all, and he's quite good at extracting the inherent humor in bringing seemingly incompatible characters together in close quarters. I was surprised by how many of the lines still seemed familiar and funny to me and I'm glad I finally got around to seeing it again.
Marsha Mason is fine, too, as the much put-upon single mom and title character who has just been dumped by her no-account actor boyfriend. She isn't crazy about being forced by circumstances to share her small apartment with yet another one. But Dreyfuss's character is far more interested in getting his career started in New York than in getting into a relationship with this understandably angry woman. Although the apartment is technically his, he just wants a nonaggression pact so he can focus on preparing for his upcoming role as Richard III, an endeavor that proves fraught with enough complications of its own.
The two actors play well against each other and the obligatory cute kid is likeable in an uncontrived way. The movie has a stagey feel to it but this seems appropriate given the basic plot. This is Neil Simon, after all, and he's quite good at extracting the inherent humor in bringing seemingly incompatible characters together in close quarters. I was surprised by how many of the lines still seemed familiar and funny to me and I'm glad I finally got around to seeing it again.