Pete 'n' Tillie

source: Pete 'n' Tillie

Pete 'n' Tillie

The dialog between Matthau and Carol Burnett is in itself worth the price of admission. Watch Mathhau's delivery. Watch how he communicates his own appreciation for his lines -- his smug self-satisfaction almost makes us believe that he wrote this stuff himself. Definitely not for Bruce Willis fans.

I checked this movie out from the library, because it's a free video rental. I liked the three major actors in it, so I figured it couldn't be that bad. And it wasn't all that bad. It just could have used some editing. It was long in some parts and moved too fast it places where it shouldn't have. Ironically, with two comic leads some of the more funny moments come with Geraldine Page, who was then the First Lady of the American Theater. She also had a fairly memorable film career in which she recieved 8 Oscar nominations, not winning untill the eighth try! She earned her fifth nomination for this film, but unfortunatly her character is wasted! She only has about four scenes, alothough memorable, the movie doesn't make the best use of her talents.

Single thirty three year old Tillie Shlaine (Carol Burnett) in San Francisco is set on another blind date with Pete Seltzer (Walter Matthau) at a party. She's guarded and he's flirtatious. He talks his way into her life. They get married. He has affairs. Their son is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Jimmy Twitchell (Rene Auberjonois) is their gay friend. Gertrude Wilson (Geraldine Page) is her mother. The relationship isn't that romantic. There are some jabs of humor but this is mostly a sad depressed tone. It's interesting to see Burnett play this suppressed cynical character. This isn't that far off for Matthau's normal range. It's difficult to feel for this couple. These actors aren't their exuberant acting persona. The movie never achieves happiness. The movie has a few minor humorous moments but it is almost entirely a downer. It makes for a tiring watch.

Carol Burnett and Walter Matthau provide moving performances as a couple struggling through maintaining a marriage in the wake of a heart-wrenching tragedy. An ode to a more eloquent age, this film engrosses the viewers in a world of two people who did everything right, but end up with life turning horribly wrong. Carol Burnett and Walter Matthau are brilliant and a surprise for DS9 fans: there is a comical and touching performance by Rene Auberjonois (Odo).

I started this movie out of boredom and was pleasantly surprised at how entertaining it is. Matthow and Burnett are so smart-alecky perfect that their continuous banter didn't get old at all. An adult drinking incessantly in movies seemed so normal back then but would now be frowned upon. I had no idea Carol Burnett had ever made anything like this. I have luckily never had to date after my 20's, but I imagine adult dating in the 70's to be actually pretty close to what is portrayed in this movie. The first part of the movie is very light and funny. The middle gets pretty deep. They try to handle serious subject matter in a light hearted way but it doesn't always work. It is still worth watching as far as I am concerned. It was good enough to compel me to write this. Entertaining without being preachy.

No, it's not a comedy, though there's some classic Matthau/Burnett wisecracking in the beginning, during the courtship. Once their son Robbie is born, life goes the course it often does in Peter de Vries novels (it's adapted from "Witch's Milk"), chronicling the ups and downs of suburban American life. There are some splendid turns by René Auberjonois and Geraldine Page. And check out Tillie's devastating undermining of Pete's shallow paramour over cocktails. Spoiler: when their son Robbie comes down with terminal leukemia, the story takes somewhat predictable turns, morphing from what might at first have seemed a comedy into a reach-for-the-hankie melodrama. I give it a ten, though, because of the performances and the mise-en-scène.

Walter Matthau and Carol Burnett both portray characters who feel themselves unworthy, at least unworthy of love. The characters are very real, nuanced, and fully realized; I've known people like these! This is a movie that doesn't talk down to its audience, or the characters to each other. They're both intelligent and perceptive. For most of the movie they are willing to live with each other's weaknesses not out of deep love, but out of an awareness that they most likely can't do better. That this changes is one of the riches of the movie, but also one of the weaknesses - the ending seems a bit too nice to be true. But that's Hollywood. I enjoyed the movie.

I'm surprised the reviews aren't more positive. For me the movie was extraordinarily touching. Perhaps it's the combination of Matthau and Burnett, two actors I love on their own and together are even better. I also liked that, even though it was San Francisco in the early Seventies, you didn't get a lot of cultural Zeitgeist or gratuitous mentions of Watergate (I think there was one Spiro Agnew joke). It's a sad, wry movie but ultimately extremely satisfying.