Ich bin nicht Rappaport

What a great movie! With a great script, a pair of huge actors, and a beautiful scenery, this movie can touch anyone's heart. Don't miss it!

This is a gentle heart warming film, that to me has a quintessential qualities that make Walter Mathau such a great actor. It is not the comedy in which he excelled at in films like 'The Odd Couple'. It is the way he bullies the script and the camera. This he does well but with not as much aplomb in 'The Sunshine Bys'. To see a film where the script is paramount is wonderful, and to have an actor such as Mathau at the centre of it conducting it with all his mastery skill is a delight to watch. The supporting cast around Mathau equip themselves well. They are not overpowered by his fame or skill. At times it feels as though you are actually there watching events unfold. This is a credit to the director who while keeping it looking like the good film it is, also brings you in as though you are the only person in the world watching the film. Although I have only watched the film on the television, I feel that I would have felt the same effect had I been watching the film in the cinema. This is a rare effect, too many times films can have that distant feel. It is the directors's skill, and the skill and art of the actors that this is never lost. I watched this film, when I had to fill half an hour of time. The result was that I was glued to the seat unable to pull myself away.

Despite being old and worn, Nat Moyer has not lost any of his energy and is still the rabble rouser that he grew up around. He misses the Union days and the fact that none of his peers seem interesting in fighting "the man" anymore. He spends his days in the park where he finds that the employment of acquaintance Midge Carter provides him plenty to get worked up about. Although Nat himself may be a mess underneath the surface he soon finds the problems of those he meets to be distracting enough even as his own issues remain unresolved.

Starting out with a scene that gives us a certain amount of insight into the character of Nat, the film takes a fairly slow pace and isn't helped by the fact that the drama is rather forced and unconvincing for long sections of it. Although there is an element of character study within the film, the "adventures" of Nat and Midge are slightly stretched and prevented me seeing the characters are people. In an out and out comedy, this wouldn't be a problem but this is not so much a comedy as it is a drama and it does rather take away from the impact it has. It still does enough to be interesting to watch but I could see what it was trying to do and it was a bit of a problem for me that it didn't seem to be able to do it. The slow pace isn't helped by the length of the film and I can understand why many viewers will be frustrated by this when combined with the way that it is hard to be involved with.

The strongest sections of the film are those that ignore the adventures but concentrate on the two men and the dynamics between them – it is here we get to the core of the characters (or at least as close as we get). This is also helped by fine acting from the lead two. Matthau is his usual funny self but also has an air of the tragic – he convinces well as a man who may be delusional, crazy or just plain lonely and in denial. Davis has less of the lime light since he plays more of a straight man to Matthau, but he does it well. These two make the film better than the material suggests and although the support is OK, I didn't really think that the film made good use of Irving, Nelson, Plimpton, Diaz and others – mainly they just set up the adventures and providing a bit more of a way into Nat.

Overall this is an OK film but just don't expect anything special. It isn't particularly funny, nor is it meant to be; more worryingly the character aspect of it doesn't come off that well and, if it weren't for the presence of Mattau and Davis, I doubt it would have worked at all. Worth a try but be wary of the length, slow pace and the feeling that it is consistently missing the target.

Though I have worked in almost all aspects of the theater business, I do not agree with many of my colleagues when it comes to film tastes. I do not like film adaptations of stage plays because the origins are most of the times in evidence, but that seems to be what my friends enjoy more: to be remembered that they watch filmed theater. But this one (winner of New York's Tony award) I liked quite a lot, although it is also the case: in spite of the efforts to emphasize its outdoors setting, it is based on word interchange, and most of the action is verbal and static, depending mostly on criss-cross editing. This time though you have two exceptional actors, with the additional plus that they are not of the kind that goes around with a sign on his/her face or chest that reads "I'm the Greatest Actor" (and I can think of quite a few). You don't find plays everyday in which the main characters are a Jewish militant of the Left and a black janitor, both very old. These people are not glamorous, their lives were not full of heroics, and old age is not epic, but one spends a good time with these two folks, even if a couple of subplots could have been omitted. Perhaps, due to the fact that Herb Gardner the playwright adapted his work and also directed it, the film is overlong. But one day when you are not in a rush, and have time for Matthau and Davis, enjoy them. It is better than watching aimless young Germans in Portugal for two hours, in something called "Body Rice"...

A couple of old codgers who were playing slightly beyond their actual ages make I'm Not Rappaport a really delightful film, especially for us senior citizens who can now identify with it. I couldn't much when the movie came out or Herb Gardiner's play ran on Broadway from 1985 to 1988 for 891 performances. Judd Hirsch and Cleavon Little played the roles on Broadway that Walter Matthau and Ossie Davis do in the film.

There's a nice free flowing chemistry between Matthau and Davis. Matthau was literally born to play this role given his Lower East Side upbringing with family of the same general background as his Nat Moyer.

Matthau's discovered that the elderly can get away with just about anything and maybe helped by a bit of dementia he spins the kind of yarns that in old Hollywood westerns might have made him a Yiddishe sidekick. He's an old leftist from back in the 30s when it was most respectable. Bernie Sanders would have gotten this guy.

Davis has lived for 40 years as a building superintendent in a Fifth Avenue and the building is going co-op and he's about to be let go. Davis likes Matthau in his own way, but hasn't quite gotten the hang of laying it on the way Matthau does. See the two of them, especially Matthau take on the co-op president Boyd Gaines.

The play only had the one setting of the park bench in Central Park where these two commiserate. But with Herb Gardner adapting his own play, the beautiful fall vistas of Central Park makes the park itself a character in the film.

But you really have to see how Matthau and Davis play off against each other so well. That's what puts them in the seats and now renting the film on Netflicks.