The Apartment

Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston, Jack Kruschen, David Lewis
Directed by: Billy Wilder
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Drama
1960

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An employee (Jack Lemmon) of a large corporation allows his bosses to use his apartment for affairs, so that their wives won't find out. However, when he tries to start his own romance, things quickly become very complicated.

Review:

Tim: I really liked The Apartment, although I'm a bit perplexed as to why this movie is rated so highly by so many people. This is one of those films that always pops up on the "Best movies" lists, and certainly seems to be an audience favorite. It won 5 Academy Awards. Now, I agree that the film is really good, and I liked it. However, I wouldn't consider it among the best movies I've seen. I am quite frankly a bit surprised. I expected more out of the film.

What is most interesting to me is the risque quality of the story. Things were certainly changing in 1960- this movie wouldn't have gotten made a few decades earlier. The whole premise is that Jack Lemmon's bosses use his apartment for extramarital affairs. That is pretty graphic for this time period, and not surprisingly, the movie was fairly controversial for its time. Some people loved it, some people claimed it was filthy and disgusting. I actually applaud the film for the risks it took to bring a sultry story like this to the big screen. I appreciate the film's willingness to be controversial.

I really liked the cast, too. Jack Lemmon is fantastic in the lead role. He's funny and sweet, but in a dopey, uncharismatic way. It was a tough performance, because we had to find him endearing and identify with him, but he had to leave the suave, charismatic persona to Fred MacMurray. MacMurray does a very good job as a potentially sleazy boss. I thought he had terrific presence in the film and I was drawn to his character. He did a great job. I thought Shirley MacLaine gave a very strong performance as well. While I wasn't as wowed with her as the other cast members, she was an essential part of the cast and played her part well. There's a few scenes that she absolutely nails.

The film is good and it's entertaining, but I was hoping that it would have built to a little more. The movie kept my attention, but it never really hit me on any kind of emotional level. I was interested, but I never felt the plight of these characters. Their lows didn't impact me much, and neither did the resolution of their stories at the end. I wanted to be drawn into the characters and the story more, but I simply couldn't get in.

I admit that maybe I'm crazy on this one. The film did receive 10 Academy Award nominations, winning five. It won for Best Art Direction, Best Director for Billy Wilder, Best Film Editing, Best Original Screenplay, and of course, Best Picture. That's a highly impressive Oscar haul right there. The nominations it didn't win for was Best Actor for Jack Lemmon (deserved), Best Actress for Shirley MacLaine (deserved), Best Supporting Actor for Jack Kruschen (honestly, that surprised me. I didn't think he was all that great), Best Cinematography, and Best Sound. Overall, the film did pretty well for itself.

I really don't like being too critical of this film. I loved the story and the cast featured some very strong performers. The movie flows at a quick pace, and it was fairly entertaining throughout. This is definitely a really solid film. However, I think that it's a bit overrated by many critics. It's certainly good, but I would not consider it truly great. Maybe I'm nuts, but The Apartment wouldn't go on my "greatest films" list.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7.5



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