Review of The Apartment (80)

Plot
C.C. Baxter is a clerk at a New York insurance company and has discovered a way to quickly climb the corporate ladder - by lending out his apartment to the executives as a place to take their mistresses. Baxter is often left to deal with the aftermath of their visits, and on one particular night he's left with a major problem to solve.

Jason's Thoughts
Two of the first 20 movies we have watched from the list thus far have been comedies, and I use the term comedy loosely. Sure, A Night at the Opera and Bringing Up Baby had its moments, but the overall impression the movie left on me wasn't that great. With that said, I'm sure you can about imagine the excitement I exuberated when I realized that The Apartment was also billed as a comedy. Thankfully, this film faired better than the previous ones as it not only had its funny moments, but it had a well written story to go along with it.

For the most part, The Apartment is a romantic comedy, which is a type of movie that I usually tend to pass on. After watching it, though, I am having a hard time thinking of anything bad to say about this movie. It wasn't entirely a comedy as it did take a serious turn in the middle, but much like the rest of the film, that too seemed to click and work well. Not a small task either given the subject matter is adultery, suicide and loneliness, but it makes it look easy with its great cast and wonderful dialog.

All in all, The Apartment takes a light hearted approach to what it usually serious subject matter. It can appear dated at times, such as the way females are portrayed in the workplace and the amount to rent the apartment, but if you are willing to look past that, you will find a funny, charming, movie worth two hours of your time. Now, if only all romantic comedies could be this good I may stop passing on them.

Crystal's Thoughts
One of the perhaps neatest parts of this movie was seeing Jack Lemmon so young! The first movie I had ever seen him in was Grumpy Old Men, so this was quite a different man. Just like in the Grumpy Men movies, Lemmon does an astounding job of acting in this film. His expressions and delivery of lines keeps one engrossed in the movie throughout.

The movie has a good balance of romance, humor and even a little darkness with the suicide attempt at the peak of the film. It was fun to watch a movie that didn't drag like some others have. This had a good movement of events and with a satisfying storyline. Very creative for this time, and perhaps a bit daring as well with all the men cheating on their wives.

I would have again loved to see this movie in color. Watching the older films in black and white has certainly left me with an appreciation of color and how much the film world has advanced. With this particular movie, I was also intrigued by the complexity of the sets. You can see a definite shift as we progress through time in how sets grew, making the films bigger, and in this case, better. We've hit the second page of our list now, so I look forward to better and better films! Can definitely put this one on the keeper list.

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