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California Suite
Columbia/Tri-Star // PG // January 2, 2002
List Price: $14.95 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Neal Simon's California Suite offers a smorgasbord of stars in a true ensemble cast, with Michael Caine, Jane Fonda, Walter Matthau, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Maggie Smith, Elaine May, and Alan Alda playing various parts in four different storylines that run concurrently through the movie. Alda and Fonda are a long-divorced couple coming to terms with bitterness and the need to move on to new lives; Matthau is a older gentleman who must find a way to explain to his wife (May) exactly how a young blonde has ended up in his bed; Cosby and Prior team up for a slapstick story thread about friends whose joint vacation has them at each others' throats; Smith plays an actress who has come to California along with her husband (Caine) for the Academy Awards. (In an amusing irony, Maggie Smith won the 1978 Oscar for best supporting actress for her role as the actress who fails to win an Oscar.) The common theme is twofold: each story takes place in or around the Beverly Hills Hotel, and each story touches on the relationships between men and women.
By far the most interesting part of California Suite is recognizing the various well-known actors as they appear in their different skits. Unfortunately, that's about it for entertainment value. Despite being billed as a comedy, California Suite is not funny, unless one considers watching other people being unpleasant to each other is hilarious. For the most part, the "situations" that the various couples find themselves in are not particularly amusing, with the exception of some parts of the Pryor/Cosby storyline. The script, which focuses on the people sniping at each other, may be snappy, but it's not amusing. Drama-wise, the film again suffers from not knowing what it's about. The four different storylines come across more as skits than real storylines, with little sense of development or wrap-up.
What it boils down to is that it's never clear what the film is trying to do. The first of the four stories, the Alan Alda-Jane Fonda storyline, is probably the best overall, and actually has dramatic potential... but it fits awkwardly into the structure of the film overall. How is their story connected to those of the others? Why is it set in the hotel at all? This story could as easily have been developed into an entire film of its own, rather than being put in a fragmented form into a framework that doesn't hold it properly.
California Suite might have been better if somehow all these different characters ended up intersecting in some way. With four different storylines all taking place in the same hotel, it seems at the outset of the movie that the different stories, from different starting places, are going to connect in some unexpected and hopefully funny way. As it is, however, none of the stories intersect... in fact, it looks like none of the five sets of actors are ever on-screen with anyone from any of the other sets. California Suite becomes a collection of unrelated stories, with nothing that holds them together either literally or thematically. Any one of them could have been cut, without changing the film at all, other than in running time.
Video
We're looking at a strictly average transfer here. On the plus side, California Suite is presented in anamorphic widescreen in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. On the minus side, it's evident that the print was minimally cleaned up for the DVD. Some scenes are relatively clear and clean, while others are distinctly noisy and grainy.
Audio
California Suite comes with a Dolby mono soundtrack, which is distinctly insufficient for the film's needs. Dialogue comes across as slightly muffled and occasionally slightly unclear. There's also some variation in volume, with some scenes dropping low enough to require adjustment with the volume control. In general, the track is rather flat-sounding.
Extras
The extra space on this DVD is taken up by a pan-and-scan version of the film; there are no special features.
Final thoughts
The tagline on the DVD is "The best two-hour vacation in town!", but I'll beg to differ. It's not hideously bad, just pointless. It might be better than nothing if you were stuck somewhere with a copy of California Suite and absolutely nothing else to do, but in general the best advice is to skip it.
By far the most interesting part of California Suite is recognizing the various well-known actors as they appear in their different skits. Unfortunately, that's about it for entertainment value. Despite being billed as a comedy, California Suite is not funny, unless one considers watching other people being unpleasant to each other is hilarious. For the most part, the "situations" that the various couples find themselves in are not particularly amusing, with the exception of some parts of the Pryor/Cosby storyline. The script, which focuses on the people sniping at each other, may be snappy, but it's not amusing. Drama-wise, the film again suffers from not knowing what it's about. The four different storylines come across more as skits than real storylines, with little sense of development or wrap-up.
What it boils down to is that it's never clear what the film is trying to do. The first of the four stories, the Alan Alda-Jane Fonda storyline, is probably the best overall, and actually has dramatic potential... but it fits awkwardly into the structure of the film overall. How is their story connected to those of the others? Why is it set in the hotel at all? This story could as easily have been developed into an entire film of its own, rather than being put in a fragmented form into a framework that doesn't hold it properly.
California Suite might have been better if somehow all these different characters ended up intersecting in some way. With four different storylines all taking place in the same hotel, it seems at the outset of the movie that the different stories, from different starting places, are going to connect in some unexpected and hopefully funny way. As it is, however, none of the stories intersect... in fact, it looks like none of the five sets of actors are ever on-screen with anyone from any of the other sets. California Suite becomes a collection of unrelated stories, with nothing that holds them together either literally or thematically. Any one of them could have been cut, without changing the film at all, other than in running time.
Video
We're looking at a strictly average transfer here. On the plus side, California Suite is presented in anamorphic widescreen in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. On the minus side, it's evident that the print was minimally cleaned up for the DVD. Some scenes are relatively clear and clean, while others are distinctly noisy and grainy.
Audio
California Suite comes with a Dolby mono soundtrack, which is distinctly insufficient for the film's needs. Dialogue comes across as slightly muffled and occasionally slightly unclear. There's also some variation in volume, with some scenes dropping low enough to require adjustment with the volume control. In general, the track is rather flat-sounding.
Extras
The extra space on this DVD is taken up by a pan-and-scan version of the film; there are no special features.
Final thoughts
The tagline on the DVD is "The best two-hour vacation in town!", but I'll beg to differ. It's not hideously bad, just pointless. It might be better than nothing if you were stuck somewhere with a copy of California Suite and absolutely nothing else to do, but in general the best advice is to skip it.
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