Simon

Simon

Simon

Simon

"Simon" is one of the strangest movies I have seen in quite some time. It's not the premise that is so strange - the bare bones of the plot read like they could be made into a typical comedy - but rather the execution. Although there are a number of attempts at humor throughout the movie (and I admit that I did find some of these attempts amusing), there is a strong serious undercurrent. It seems that the movie is trying to say something, though what that is I cannot say for sure. But there are deeper problem with the movie. It takes quite a while for it to get going, for one thing. And once it gets going, it seems to have a number of moments where key footage seems missing or wasn't filmed at all in the first place. But all the same, I am kind of glad that I saw the movie, because it's the rare major studio production to really be strange and offbeat - which is refreshing in an age of cookie cutter plots and lack of imagination. I would recommend this movie to viewers who want something different and are ready to accept something that is an interesting failure of sorts.

The Institute for Advanced Concepts is a group of five powerful scientists led by Dr. Carl Becker (Austin Pendleton). They are so brilliant that they have secured unfathomable government contracts to give them unlimited resources. Leon Hundertwasser (Max Wright) changes Nielsen ratings. Eric Van Dongen (Wallace Shawn) is trying to cross breed humanity with cockroaches. Then they read that over 60% of Americans believe in ET. They decide to hypnotize Prof. Simon Mendelssohn (Alan Arkin) with the help of Dr. Cynthia Malloy (Madeline Kahn) into thinking that he was an alien at birth and then abandoned. Lisa is his girlfriend and assistant. Alan Arkin belongs to an early iteration of Second City. That's probably where he met Judy Graubart. She may be a good performer on the small stage but she's not one on the big screen. Madeline Kahn would be an infinitively more charismatic lead. The whole movie feels like a smartly written exercise that is too smart for its own good. Writer/director Marshall Brickman has an extensive resume which includes a lot of early work with Woody Allen. It's a satire but of what exactly is not clear. Is it a satire of scientists? Is it a satire of the media? Is it a satire of the military? It may be simply a satire of the modern world in general. Instead of becoming an overnight media sensation, I would be more interested if the group released him into the wilds of his own life. He starts acting crazy. His class becomes popular. He abandons Lisa for hot coeds and then he becomes a media sensation. Alan Arkin is a terrific performer. The story needs to figure out its heart and its soul to bring out the humanity in the alien. There are strange little lines that strike me as hilarious. "Lisa, a lady is dancing with a potholder." It's completely random and the movie probably needs more of that. It's a high concept comedy that is a little too high.

I remember Marshall Brickman from his days as a Tarrier (2nd edition), writing and delivering some very funny comic interludes between songs. And of course his Oscar for co-writing Annie Hall, and also his many contributions to Jersey Boys. But this Simon thing? UGH! Catastrophically inept. Not the least bit funny. I'm flabbergasted at the positive reviews on this site. There is no "brilliance" in this film - merely a lot of chaos and shouting. Somebody on this thread actually compared this amateurish monstrosity to Dr Strangelove. Gads - please reconsider.

I checked the "spoiler" box but I can't believe that anyone reading these comments hasn't seen the movie, forgotten about it, and is now trying to remember it. It's too old, too obscure, and was never very popular even in its day, so I don't think anyone is just discovering this movie. Simon is extremely funny, extremely intelligent and sometimes very, very silly. It's also a warm, affectionate, and in the end, redeeming movie. Just to remind those who may have forgotten some of the best moments I give you: Simon, creating language, names his hand "mongillo", then discovering he has two, exclaims, "Zwei mongillo!" Or Fred Gwynne as General Korey getting all excited about the "Stupid making gas?, Makes the enemy stupid?" The people who will laugh the hardest at this movie are kids, who will laugh at the silliness and slapstick, and at least reasonably intelligent people who will get the multitude of cultural, political, scientific, and countless other references. Without meaning to sound sexist,(yes, women are just as capable of getting all the references) unfortunately, many women will dismiss this movie as unfunny.I think this is because of the abundance of slapstick. It's a Three Stooges thing.

Back in the early 80s, when I was still a kid, my parents subscribed to an early cable pay channel called Prism that showed uncut movies (along with sports, etc). Just recently I saw a trivia question about actors who have played Inspector Clouseau, which made me think of Alan Arkin, which suddenly brought back this dim memory of a weird movie I had seen a bunch of times on Prism. Specifically, I was picturing Arkin running through a parking lot with an oven mitt. Not much to go on, but using IMDB I somehow figured out it was Simon, and a web search revealed that the movie was up on a certain video hosting site that shall remain nameless (but its initials are YT). So I watched it. Turns out my memory is crap. The scene I was thinking of was when Simon escapes from the research facility - he is running through a parking lot, but there's no oven mitt. Instead he sees a woman dancing with a man in a puffy silver suit (it kind of makes sense if you watch the film) and says "That lady is dancing with a potholder!" That joke really cracked me up as a kid, and the whole weird, off-kilter vibe of the movie just stuck with me over the years. It's kind of a dark comedy, kind of a farce, kind of a social critique and just thoroughly odd. If you're the type that likes "cult" movies and intelligent, offbeat humor, you'd probably love it. If not, you'll probably hate it. It's that type of movie. I doubt there were many viewers who walked away thinking "Eh, it was OK". Kind of a shame the movie has become so obscure that when you search IMDB for "Simon", it doesn't even come up in the short list of results. I had to get to it by looking at Arkin's film list. Oh, and one last bit of trivia - while watching it, the music in the final scene seemed really familiar, so I watched the credits...hmmm, nothing that I recognize. Eventually I figured out it was Ravel's "Pavanne De La Belle Au Bois Dorman", and I recognized it because Joe Walsh did a rock instrumental version of it on his "So What" album under the title "Pavanne" and all these years I had no idea it was a famous piece of classical music.

I remember Marshall Brickman from WAY back - when he was a member of the folk group The Tarriers (2nd instalment) in the earlier '60's. He wrote and delivered some very humorous comedic interludes between songs. And of course there's his Oscar for co-writing Annie Hall. But this Simon thing? It stinks. I'm flabbergasted that anyone would be taken it by it. Elsewhere on this thread I saw a comparison to Dr Strangelove. Gads - that was brilliant, this thing is wretched.

This is a very funny film written and directed by Marshall Brickman, who wrote Woody Allen's ANNIE HALL, MANHATTAN, and MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY, as well as numerous other films. He only directed four films, of which this is the first, and it shows the least directorial skill unfortunately. His second film LOVESICK (1983, see my review) was much more satisfactory as a film. SIMON should have been far more hilarious than it is, but Brickman was too inexperienced and did not plot the pace sufficiently to keep the action moving, so that it repeatedly sags with people talking for too long, and with too much space between the jokes. However, it is very good value if you are willing to go with the flow and not mind the minor faults. Austin Pendleton is the co-star, along with Alan Arkin, and Madeleine Kahn is one of the two female leads. Austin is my cousin, and I believe he and I met Maddy Kahn together for the first time at the Upstairs at the Downstairs when she was still doing live shows, long before she was ever in a movie. This film is a comic sci fi caper, where a think tank full of mad scientists interested in brainwashing techniques, which is run by Austin, choose Arkin for an experiment. They put him into an isolation tank for a very long period of sensory deprivation and persuade him that he is an alien. Much of the comedy then results from Arkin's behaviour once he comes to believe this. Wallace Shawn adds good support, as he always does. I won't spoil the ending by discussing what this all leads to, but 'a good time was had by all', as they say.