Sat 7 Sep 2019
Movie Review: HOPSCOTCH (1980).
Posted by Steve under Films: Comedy/Musicals , Reviews , Suspense & espionage films[6] Comments
HOPSCOTCH. AVCO Embassy Pictures, 1980. Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Sam Waterston, Ned Beatty, Herbert Lom, David Matthau, Lucy Saroyan. Screenplay by Brian Garfield and Bryan Forbes, based on the novel by the former. Director: Ronald Neame.
It wasn’t intentional, but I saw this right after after watching Spy Game (reviewed here ), another film based on what happens after men in the spy business are about to retire, or in this case, unwillingly bounced out of the job. This is what happens to Miles Kendig (Walter Matthau) when he lets his counterpart for the Soviet Union (Herbert Lom) go free when caught red-handed just doing his job.
Matthau’s rationale is that it’s better to know who’s who on the other side rather the wait to learn who the new guy might be. But furious, Ned Beatty as Matthau’s new inexperienced boss, boots him out, permanently.
What is there for Matthau to do but a little revenge, which comes in the form of writing his memoirs, which he starts sending out to publishers one chapter at a time, and staying ahead of Beatty and his former co-workers one jump at a time.
It is but a game to him, and it is a lot of fun for the viewer too, but the viewer (this one, anyway) begins to realize that the game is all too easy for Miles Kendig. The game is far too one-sided. Ned Beatty, for all his profanity and foot-stomping, doesn’t stand a chance.
The remaining pleasure therefore lies in watching Walter Matthau, he of the lugubrious, lived-in face, as an old pro at work. Glenda Jackson as his long-time lady friend, doesn’t have all that much else to do, but whenever the two of them are on the screen together, the chemistry between them makes sparks fly.
All in all, though, when compared to Spy Game, the only category for which I would rate Hopscotch more than second best is light comedy, at which there was none better than Walter Matthau, that and the additional presence of Glenda Jackson.
As a movie, it’s a lot of fun to watch, I grant you, but when what’s happening on the screen starts repeating itself, you know the movie’s over, and way too soon. And worse, there’s never a sense of urgency or tension in the story that’s told. Even if played as a comedy, which this one is, stories of a master spy at work should never be as relaxing as this one.
September 8th, 2019 at 7:29 pm
This is one of my favorite movies. Brian Garfield’s book was a better spy story but his script makes this a better movie.
One of the appeals of the film for me was Matthau’s ability to play with Ned Beatty and the idiot government. There are times when the Sam Waterston character might have caught him if Waterston didn’t have Beatty as a boss.
While I liked the gratuitous romance between Matthau and Glenda Jackson (HOUSE CALLS) for the movie, I was also pleased the Jackson character was not in the book.
This is a near perfect light comedy and not meant to be taken as if they are making a serious dark spy thriller.
September 8th, 2019 at 10:29 pm
Michael
I know a lot of people like the film as much as you do, so I spent more time than usual writing up this review. The movie just didn’t gel for me, and it took me a while to come up with the words I needed to say why.
Darkness in a spy film is nothing I need. What I do have to have is a solid footing in it, something to push me forward from scene to scene. For me, this is what the movie didn’t have, or at least not enough of it. Matthau’s character simply made everything look way too easy. Ned Beatty’s character was a nitwit in comparison and presented no challenge at all.
This is all a personal reaction of course, and looking at the comments left by users on IMDb, I’m way outnumbered by the 9’s and 10’s they’ve left.
I love movies that make me think about them, though, and this one certainly has. And what I can tell you is that given a long enough time in between, would I watch it again? The answer is yes.
September 8th, 2019 at 7:51 pm
I recall this film with much good feeling attached. Primarily for Walter Matthau; I’d watch Matthau in any role. Any time.
Matthau has a slot in my most stringent ‘top-five’ tier of ‘all-time favorite stars’. I place him alongside Frederic March or Jimmy Stewart. He could handle any assignment, tough or comedic or tragic. Seen him in westerns, seen him in musicals, seen him in thrillers. Superb career.
Now this is not a particularly great flick (in my opinion) but it does re-team Matthau and Jackson, who romped together in ‘House Calls’, a medical comedy which raked in the greenbacks. They do seem to have a genuine chemistry, these two.
The details of the Hopskotch plot are fuzzy to me, I’d have to think hard to remember the wending and winding of the chase. Sam Waterston co-stars. But I’m firm on the fact that the author of the story –Brian Garfield–is the same writer who penned ‘Death Wish’ (and a few other titles of which none are very noteworthy). ‘Deep Cover’ for example, not a standout but I read that as well.
This story seems to have no real strong reason for being made, but as I often remind people, the films of the late 1970s-era didn’t have to be blockbusters every single time. Different industry; plenty of flicks like this cost $10m and returned $40 and all was well.
It is a kind of film which is no longer made anymore; it was a creature of those 1970s studio budgets (before the change wreaked by Heaven’s Gate and Raiders-of-the-Lost-Ark).
A couple of older stars, rather unsexy stars, intellectual-comedy stars admired only by an older audience of that day. A sleepy little script based on minor, minor wit and unspectacular shenanigans. A couple screwball car crashes and Matthau sauntering through the whole thing with no real effort other than his classic wry smirk.
No nudity, and some lame ‘stunts’ which wouldn’t even have made-the-grade on an episode of the Dukes.
Therefore, in terms of critique, I would not rank this middling-little outing with any of the strict standards which we often cleave to today, in the face of sundry contemporary BAD examples of this quaint, coy, rom-com format.
It was so harmless in conception, and was such a common example of dozens similar every year …as a result it exudes a hint of sweetness at this late date, when so much else has turned sour and sickly and feeble. It has a feeling of the ‘untouched’ and the ‘homespun’.
I come back around to this sentiment to close my remarks: it’s a Walter Mathhau movie. Matthau is always worth a nod. Glad to see his face and hear his name on this website.
September 8th, 2019 at 10:34 pm
Lazy
I think your comment may be longer than my review. Well done, and I thank you. I’ve been thinking about the movie all afternoon wile out doing errands. One question I’ve been asking myself is whether or not the movie could have been made without Walter Matthau in it, and the answer is no. The movie fits him like an old shoe, and it’s one that no one else could have worn.
There is one point I do disagree with you on, though. I found Glenda Jackson to be very sexy in this movie. In my opinion. Somehow Walter Matthau brings out the best in her. I wish that they’d had even more screen time together than they did.
September 9th, 2019 at 12:18 am
An entertaining film, but the book managed the suspense end of things a bit better. But only a Grinch could complain when you get Matthau and Jackson on screen with the likes of Lom and Beatty.
January 11th, 2020 at 6:44 pm
One of my absolute favorite movies.