love these guys

Comedy duos seem to be a thing of the past, which makes watching the best to ever do it all the more affecting. Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon were doing this for decades and you can feel the friendship, camaraderie, and love between every practical joke in “Grumpy Old Men”, a simplistic sitcom that basically wouldn’t work nearly as well if it didn’t star them.


Lemmon’s John Gustafson and Matthau’s Max Goldman are bickering neighbors in frozen-over Wabasha Minnesota, who have been greeting each other as “putz” and “moron” for decades. They trade barbs and are so competitive with each other they even get into arguments about whose old age pain is worse. One will occasionally leave a stinky dead fish in the other’s car or use a replica remote to change channels on the other’s TV. It’s a childish rivalry meant to mask two things: that they’re a lot alike and deep down, the only real excitement and enjoyment they still have is razzing on the other.


Things get all the more competitive when Ann Margaret’s Ariel shows up as a new neighbor, a free spirit who rides her snowmobile at night and likes to roll around in the snow after a steam in the sauna. Both men stare out of their living room windows, falling instantly in love and finding a new reason to fight with each other.


There are other subplots involving the IRS going after Gustafson and a burgeoning romance between Goldman’s son (Kevin Pollack) and Gustafson’s daughter (Daryll Hannah), a romance the two old coots seem to be subconsciously even trying to promote because deep down they love their togetherness.


But the movie is really a bromance of crabby, unaffectionate people. Much of this is contrived but what does that matter when the two bring such a comfort to the history of these two men that we basically assume this has been their dynamic for decades. Matthau could be funny just with a raised brow, and mischievous and snide is right in his wheelhouse. And Lemmon makes for a spry sparring partner. Burgess Meredith is also kinda funny as Lemmon’s sexual innuendo spewing dad. “Grumpy Old Men” isn’t a great movie, and it’s not trying to be. It feels like pleasant comfort food, with this very funny duo the perfect cherry on top.