Grumpy Old Men (film)

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Grumpy Old Men
Directed by	Donald Petrie
Produced by	John Davis
Written by	Mark Steven Johnson
Starring	Jack Lemmon Walter Matthau Ann-Margaret Burgess Meredith Daryl Hannah Kevin Pollak
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Cinematography	Johnny E. Jensen
Editing by	Bonnie Koehler
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	December 25 1993 (U.S. release)
Running time	103 min.
Language	English
Budget	$35.1 million
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Grumpy Old Men is a 1993 Warner Bros. comedy film starring Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, and Ann-Margret, with Burgess Meredith, Daryl Hannah, Kevin Pollak, Katie Sagona, Ossie Davis, and Buck Henry.

Directed by Donald Petrie, the screenplay was written by Mark Steven Johnson, who also wrote the sequel, Grumpier Old Men (1995).

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Quotes 3 Trivia 4 External links

[edit] Plot summary

The story concerns two elderly men, John Gustafson (Lemmon), a 68 year old retired history teacher who likes to play chess by himself, and Max Goldman (Matthau), a retired television repairman who likes to watch TV all day. Both live in Wabasha, Minnesota, and are widowers. The setting is during the winter holiday season.

Despite being friends early in life, and living next door to each other for years, the men do not get along. They argue over everything, such as who is the better fisherman, and pull cruel pranks on each other. While both characters feel loneliness, John is also having trouble with the Internal Revenue Service, which is hinted at throughout the movie, because of his ex-wife having a part-time job for eleven years, which he failed to file for. He only really owes $13,000 on back taxes, but with interest on eleven years, and penalty fees it all adds up to $57,000.

Further subplots involve John's daughter Melanie (Hannah), who is going through a separation with her husband, Mike; and Max's son Jacob (Pollak), who is running for mayor of Wabasha; as well as John's 94 year old father, "Grandpa Gustafson" (Meredith), who enjoys talking about women, drinking beer and fishing. Also involved in the story is Chuck (Ossie Davis), who is friend to both John and Max, and owns the bait shop they both frequent when fishing on the local lake. He passes away during his sleep in the middle of the movie.

Ariel, an attractive widow (played by Ann-Margret) moves into the house directly across the street from Gustafson and Goldman. Her arrival causes a stir in town, whose longtime residents react differently to her. Ariel was an art teacher at Berkley, whose husband had passed away five years earlier. During Thanksgiving night, when Max and John sees Chuck going to Ariel's house for dinner, they both realize that they are very much attracted to her. Both Gustafson and Goldman compete with each other to win Ariel's heart, but ultimately Ariel and John find themselves falling in love. While having dinner with John at his house on another night, Ariel finds out that John's son, Brian, died during Vietnam, and that he and Max were "friends" since they were ten years old. When Ariel asks John what could have caused two grown men to fight for most of their adult lives, John tells her to guess, and she says, "a woman".

John had won a similar romantic "contest" years earlier in their youth, which initially caused the rift between himself and Max. That contest was between May, whom John married, but who (according to John) "was no prize", and Max got the better woman, Amy, who was Max's wife. After a fight with Max over the relationship with Ariel, John decides to allow Max to "win this time", after Max reminds him of not being able to take care of Ariel because of his tax troubles, and also guilts John by saying that he doesn't have enough time to wait for another Amy to come along. On Christmas Eve, Melanie arrives at John's place with her daughter and estranged husband Mike. John feuds with Mike, which ultimately causes John to storm out of the house and walk to Slippery's, a local tavern.

Upon the request of Melanie and Jacob, Max reluctantly walks down to Slippery's to talk with John, and attempt to make up. This becomes a disastrous event. The stress of his breakup with Ariel, his tax troubles, and Melanie's troubled marriage causes John to suffer a heart attack on the way home. Flustered from his argument with John, Max stubbornly walks home, and finds his neighbor lying on the ground in the snow, which begins to worry Max as he runs toward him to help. Out of concern, Max realizes that John is having a heart attack and immediately beckons help from a nearby house.

The heart attack causes Max to re-evalulate things, and realizes that John and Ariel are meant for each other. Max explains everything to Ariel, who visits John in the hospital, and they resume their relationship. In the meantime, the IRS gets a court order to seize John's house, prompting Max to humorously attempt to keep the IRS agent (Henry) from entering the residence long enough for Jacob, the newly elected mayor, to obtain a cease and desist order from the court.

John gets well and leaves the hospital. Shortly afterwards he and Ariel wed, and before the start of the wedding, Jacob and Melanie are talking together, and you find out that she and Mike have divorced. Jacob tells her that he's staying with his pop's, and that he's there for her if she wants to talk. After the wedding ceremony, Max tells John that Jacob got the IRS to waive the penalties and interest, and that he took care of the $13,000 the IRS said John owed them. A grateful John hugs Max, but Max tells him not to get too happy, that it's just a loan, and it seems that they have rekindled their friendship. But this is called into question when Max pays retribution to John by placing a fish to rot inside their wedding limo, something that John did to Max in the beginning of the movie. That night Max goes to a dance, figuring he might get lucky. The movie ends with Jacob and Melanie appearing to begin a romantic relationship.

[edit] Quotes

• Max: "Morning, dickhead."
  John: "Hello, moron."

• Max: "Why don't you do the world a favor and pull your bottom lip over your head and swallow."

• Grandpa: "Kids. Can't live with 'em, can't shoot 'em."

• Max: "If I knew there was going to be a nude scene in this picture I would've asked for another million."

• Grandpa: "Looks like Chuck's a tom cat on prowl. Yeeooww...."

• Grandpa: "Looks like Chuck's taking the 'ole one eye to the optometrist."

• Max: "Hey dickhead, did you win the lottery?"
  John: "Did you enjoy your shower smartass?"

• Max: "Shingles, shmingles. When I had my ulcer, I was. . . farting razorblades."

• Grandpa: "Looks like Chuck's putting the hot dog in the bun."

• Grandpa: "Looks like Chuck's taking a ride on the bologna pony."

[edit] Trivia

• After filming this movie in Minnesota in freezing temperatures, Walter Matthau was hospitalized with double pneumonia.

[edit] External links

• Grumpy Old Men at the Internet Movie Database