Plaza Suite (1971)

Three vignettes set in the same room of the famous Plaza Hotel in New York City: 1) on their anniversary, a wife (Maureen Stapleton) looks forward to rekindling their romance but her husband (Walter Matthau) has other things on his mind. 2) a Hollywood producer (Walter Matthau) attempts to seduce a former flame (Barbara Harris) who is now a New Jersey housewife. 3) on their daughter's wedding day, the bride's parents (Walter Matthau, Lee Grant) must contend with their daughter (Jenny Sullivan) locking herself in the bathroom minutes before the ceremony. Based on the play by Neil Simon and directed by Arthur Hiller (THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY). In the original Broadway production, two actors played all three leading roles. Here, Walter Matthau plays all the male roles with three different actresses starring opposite him. I wish they'd gone with either two actors (like the Broadway play) or different actors in each segment. This way it seems like a Matthau vanity project and it's the three actresses who come off the best. The middle segment is the weakest and the first one (which is the most serious) is the strongest and the best with Stapleton (who played all the female roles in the original production) shining. Funny but still able to show us the pain under the wisecracks. With Louise Sorel.