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3 july 2000

i'm going to miss walter matthau

I'm going to miss Walter Matthau. I've never met him or anything, but I'm going to miss knowing he's around. Decent curmudgeonly guys are hard to come by. We need more of them as roommates and neighbors.

As with the rest of my interests, my taste in movies is neither current nor particularly cool. Like, this very moment I'm listening to Elvis Costello, (again) still a little upset that he didn't immediately ask me to marry him that night we stood next to one another in a Manhattan bar. (I'll tell you that story some other time.) Anyway, most of today's big movie stars just don't do it for me. George Clooney smirks too much. Ben Affleck is only tolerable when he's in a Kevin Smith movie. Tom Cruise. . .eeeegh. Frankly, John Cusack is the only one of my generation with any hope of legendary-ness, that stuff that lasts so long that theatre students actually study you within your lifetime.

Sorry, I just don't see that for Mel Gibson. "Okay, kids, today's lesson---Killing British People, Part III." Diversity isn't his strong point.

The problem with most movie stars now is that they keep playing themselves. That would be okay, if "themselves" were interesting people. Most of the time, they're not. Walter Matthau admitted in several interviews that he played himself, which was the key to his success. More accurately, he brought the best parts of himself to a role. The growly voice, the slouch, the big goofy smile through which we all knew he was a decent guy in spite of the curmudgeon. Chicks like me dig that stuff. It lasts way longer than hunklyness.

Most people have probably seen Matthau in one of these movies---"The Odd Couple", "Grumpy Old Men", or "Dennis the Menace". If you want to see him at his best, however, check out one of my favorites, "A Guide for the Married Man". It's not in every video store, but worth asking your local family-owned shop to order it. In it, Matthau plays a married man who is desperate to have an affair. He enlists the help of a playboy friend in his quest, and this becomes a very satisfying story. Anyone else would have turned Matthau's character into a despicable, wife-cheating bum. But he plays it with such great, sympathetic subtlety; and gives much more depth to someone who might have just been a common creep.

So, for what it matters, not just my parents are going to mourn the loss of Walter Matthau. He's on my short list of people who never knew me who I'll miss anyway. (The others include Lucille Ball, Sam Kinison, and Jimmy Stewart.) He was one of the last classy guys, even if he did look like he slept in his clothes and had a big smooshy face. I thought he was pretty cute.

The two birds upstairs are waiting for you, Oscar.