Wednesday, September 30, 1981
daily nebraskan
page 9
Characters in Neil Simon's world lack realism
By Chuck Lieurance
Neil Simon's newest comedy, Only
When I Laugh, is mainly another vehicle
for the spelling of Marsha Mason. She has
proven yet again (see The Goodbye Girl
and Chapter Two) that no matter what the
line may be, she will read it in the same
half-sobbing, half-whining way she reads
every other line.
Simon is not improving with age as a
writer either. He has long been a cancerous
tumor in the theater world and his move
into films was an utter atrocity.
The Simonization of America has been
one of the most serious plagues in the per
forming arts.
Simon's characters have no depth. They
speak in unrealistic and numbing repartees,
leaving the minds of the audience as though
injected with Novocain. The world, for
these stick figure characters, is without
economic restrictions or tediousness. It is
always witty, elegant and smart in that
special New York way.
In Only When I Laugh, however, Simon
has lost even the quick witty banter. The
characters play each line like a Simon gem,
but the lines are rarely funny and often
offensive considering that in this film
Simon aims his fluffball New York wit at
alcoholism and homosexuality - not to
mention his usual twist of racism, in this
case towards a Puerto Rican grocery boy.
These subjects scarcely deserve the
horribly shallow treatment they receive
from Simon's obviously shallow mind.
Marsha Mason is released from a center
for alcoholism at the start of the film look
ing, "More beautiful than when she came
in." She seems to have no mental scars, but
only to have lost some weight.
From the impression Simon gives us, she
has spent the last six months in a spa
instead of drying out. We never learn
Mason's motivation for alcoholism, why
she turned to the bottle. We only know she
used to drink and embarrass everyone, a
sin which I'm sure Simon sees as unforgive
able. Mason's best friend is a homosexual
played by James Coco, who, at best hide
ous token, prances about and makes coy
references to his sexuality. Why this
character is homosexual is beyond me.
Simon seems to have wanted to fill a quota
of smart New York types.
If the central aspect of Only When I
Laugh is Mason trying to put her life to
gether after being an "embarrassing
drunk," then the whole thing seems un
bearably easy. Of course, Simon is having
too much fun to inject an element as
serious as psychology.
It would be impossible to do a psycho
logical profile on any of these characters
because they are devoid of personalities, let
alone instabilities or complexity. They are
only the sum of their lines, and since they
only have cheap throw-away lines, the sum
is quite small if not zero.
The worst aspect of the film, though, is
poor Kristy McNichol. Although I found it
difficult to believe, she seems to have some
talent and seems to want to say her lines
like an actress instead of a robot. But she
cannot hold out against the flood of zero
ed lines emanating from Mason. She might
as well have played her lines off a wall.
McNichol attempts to inject just the
right touches of bitterness, resentment and
compassion into her role as Mason's
daughter. Perhaps it is not that she is so
good but that everyone else is so bad.
Although everyone in the film is com
plaining about their poverty and inflation,
they remodel their apartments and dash
about the city in and out of all the finest
shops buying indiscriminately. The
characters are always dressed in the height
of fashion also.
It would be interesting to find out how
much these pieces of clothing cost in New
York and how much these smart New York
apartments rent for. But Simon is also hav
ing too good a time to worry about
economics. What he does not seem to
realize is that all this lack of tedium is
getting downright tedious.
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