Oggi sposi: sentite condoglianze

Very cute, with clever interweaving of cartoon and live action ( particularly for an older movie. Lemmon does an outstanding job, as does Gerritsen. Many endearing scenes, peppered with mostly good fun throughout.

Jack Lemmon is a misanthropic cartoonist who hates women, dogs, children and is going blind. He's just published a book called THE WAR BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN, and is enduring the inevitable cocktail party where people tell him that they don't understand his jokes and he can't draw. There he meets Barbara Harris, a divorced woman with several children, and they fall awkwardly into love.

I first encountered James Thurber in the late 1960s and was largely enchanted. I think his misanthropy was one of dissatisfaction with people's inability to be forthright and strong and competent, and the fact that he couldn't draw a woman crouching on a staircase.... or the bookcase it became. A key figure in the New Yorker magazine, his talent was that of the second rank. A couple of stories survive, a couple of cartoons, but his misanthropy, masquerading as misogyny, does not play well anymore.

So this is a bewildered romance, between the Thurber Man and the Thurber Woman, and it's a mildly depressing comedy, with the high point Jack Lemmon wandering through a gallery of giant drawings, while he narrates his book to Lisa Gerritsen. I think it captures Thurber's works well, given the quality of the adult cast, which includes Jason Robards and Herb Edelman.

Unless you are trying to see all of Jack Lemmon's films you should probably skip this film. Lemmon plays an almost blind cartoonist who is getting progressively worse. He has a weird relationship with Barbara Harris's character. She was formerly married to Jason Robards. The movie is not funny though it is supposed to be a comedy. It didn't really have any point or redeeming feature. 3 out of 10.

Peter Wilson is a cartoonist who doesn't want to admit he is going blind. So he memorizes the eye chart, and when his eye doctor uses a different chart, he accuses the doctor of being unethical. In the lobby after his eyes have been dilated and he is wearing dark glasses, he trips over Terry. Later, he and Terry meet when Peter has broken his glasses and almost gets run over trying to cross the street. Terry takes Peter home and he meets her children. Possible romance?

Peter's work goes downhill after he gets interested in Terry. The proof: his book gets taken out of the front window at the bookstore where Terry works and replaced with her ex-husband's book of war photography. Still, the relationship progresses, and most of the rest of the movie has funny moments involving Terry's children and pregnant dog, and the return of Terry's ex. Toward the end the movie takes a serious turn, but that's okay because the characters are so likeable they don't have to be funny all the time.

Peter's drawings come to life several times in the movie, including in the opening credits. There are several really good scenes where the drawings are animated, including one where Peter and Terry's ex have gotten too friendly for Terry to be comfortable with the situation and the two men have had too much to drink. A 'real' war breaks out. There is also a great scene with Terry's middle child Linda, where Peter's drawings have taken on a different meaning. Several fantasy scenes are quite funny, including one where Peter's sloppy apartment looks perfect for a change (then reality comes back and it's more like Oscar Madison's place; a real ironic twist considering Lemmon is the neat one in 'The Odd Couple').

This isn't one of Lemmon's best movies, but it's not bad. And Lisa Gerritsen is quite good. I don't recall her having a speech impediment, but it seems to be an important part of her character, and she does it really well.

This movie may have children in it, but younger children maybe shouldn't see some of the more risque material. It's quite tame compared to today's movies.

The title of the film comes from a story told in drawings - The War Between Men and Women - whose author was the famous American humorist, James Thurber (1894-1961). Thurber's most famous work is the short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" which was made into a movie starring Danny Kaye in 1947. A new version of "Mitty" is in production.

The character of Peter Wilson played by Jack Lemmon in this film suffers from failing eyesight which also plagued Thurber and contributed to his unique drawing style. This film was probably inspired by William Windom's portrayal of a Thurber-like character in a TV series broadcast in 1969 called My World and Welcome To It which is a title of one of Thurber's books. Windom went on to do a one-man stage performance of Thurber's works including some animation of some of Thurber's drawings. At the end of The War Between Men and Women we see one of these animations, an anti-war piece by Thurber called "The Last Flower".