Sometimes you just need a visit from an Old Friend....last night at 11pm I found myself unable to sleep and unable to clear my head. So I went to my trusty DVD collection and decided to put a movie in that would eventually just guide me gently to Dreamland. One of my favorite comedies from the eighties and possibly of all time is Neil Simon's SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES. I first saw it when it was released in 1980. I was 10 years old and my father took me to see it. I fell in love with it. I had a major crush on Goldie Hawn and by that time I had become a big fan of FOUL PLAY, which starred Ms Hawn and Chevy Chase. SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES reunited Hawn and Chase and it immediately became one of my favorite films and has remained so all these years later. I can recite it. I have the sequence of camera shots memorized. I can hum the musical score by Marvin Hamlisch at a moment's notice. I had the poster hanging on my wall in my college dorm. Yeah....I love this film. So last night, I thought the familiarity of it would lull me to sleep. Quite the opposite....I was instantly pulled into this charming romantic comedy and at 1:15am, I was watching the end credits roll with a smile on my face. The plot is pure screwball comedy with a screenplay as only Neil Simon can do. Chevy Chase is a man living alone in a cabin in the woods. He is forced at gunpoint to rob a bank in Carmel, California by two bumbling crooks. Upon leaving the bank, he manages to have his pic taken by the security cameras and soon finds himself on the run from every law official in California. His ex-wife (Goldie Hawn) is now remarried to a District Attorney (Charles Grodin) who has just been asked by the Governor of California to run for Attorney General. Soon, Chevy is hiding out at the home of Hawn & Grodin....cue the hijinks! There are so many terrific one-liners, the California scenery is gorgeous (I still long to go to Carmel someday), and the performances are top-notch. The chemistry between Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase was terrific in FOUL PLAY and is even more palpable in SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES. They are able to convey a deep longing for each other, in spite of Hawn's resolution to remain loyal and faithful to her husband. PRIVATE BENJAMIN will always be Goldie's greatest performance, but this is a close runner-up. The Neil Simon lines are like butter in her mouth and she has never looked more beautiful. Chevy Chase is one of the great physical comics who is also fortunate to pull off the whole Leading Man thing. He has never been more charming than in this film. Charles Grodin doesn't allow either of the Stars of this movie to upstage him. He holds his own beautifully and is quite funny. Besides being a terrific comedy, this is an incredibly romantic movie as well. The triangle between the three main characters leads you, as a viewer, to truly wonder who you want Hawn to end up with. Both men are charming and truly adore her. The last 45 seconds of SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES ranks up there with one of my favorite endings of all time. If you've never seen this movie, seek it out. It's a delight. If you have seen it and remember it fondly, give it another look. It holds up 32 years later as one of the hidden romantic comedy gems that should be given another life.
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