I once read a comment by an old timer saying that he saw Matthau's character from The Fortune Cookie every time he saw Matthau act. It's a biased and uninformed opinion if I've ever seen one, and if nothing else, you can tell from watching Kotch that Matthau was a man of range.
In what is perhaps one of the first portrayals of an autist protagonist, Matthau plays a long-winded elderly man by the name of "Kotch" (I think his actual surname is Kotcher, as some characters call him "Mr. Kotcher," although, humorously, it sounds like a slur).
I say he's an autist because the man really has a talent for remembering minor technical details from this or that subject and prattling on about with celerity without much considering the interest of other people, or indeed, without being affected much by their disinterest.
Anyway, Kotch is employed as a sort of au pair for his grandson, living with his son and his wife. His loquacious and unsociable habits, however, drive his daughter-in-law up the wall and the embattled son decides it's time to discharge him of his duties.
Yes, it's another drama with an old man being shuffled around, but that's not really the meat of the plot. The actual interesting part comes when a young teenage babysitter is hired to supplement (or probably slowly replace) Kotch as caregiver, but she gets pregnant on the job and becomes a destitute single mother.
What as first is a side character who neglects Kotch as much as anyone else comes to hold a strong (asexual) fascination for the old man, and despite her consistent display of disinterest in him, he decides to help her through her ordeal as far as she'll allow herself to be helped.
The directing is spectacularly subtle. Kotch, the man who perhaps in his years of dotage has been seeing his emotions dull, experiences flashbacks to the time when he was like these young people, passing through the passions and milestones of a full and egocentric life and this contrasts with his thankfulness at still being able to be independent and yearning to be useful in some way to others. The young single mother, while in the midst of that egocentricity, always keeps old Kotcher at arm's length, and we only come to find after the fact that there was something of gratitude brimming under the surface. It's a bittersweet and unique dynamic that you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere else.
As I stated before, Matthau gives a adroit performance of a neglected ancient who seems to be on the brink of losing his sharpness, but can and wishes to still squeeze some meaning out of his life. A completely different character from the ones we've seen him play.
Honourable Mentions: Ikiru (1952) - A dying old man strikes up a romance for a day with a young woman and decides that the meaning of life is to be of service to his fellow man.
In what is perhaps one of the first portrayals of an autist protagonist, Matthau plays a long-winded elderly man by the name of "Kotch" (I think his actual surname is Kotcher, as some characters call him "Mr. Kotcher," although, humorously, it sounds like a slur).
I say he's an autist because the man really has a talent for remembering minor technical details from this or that subject and prattling on about with celerity without much considering the interest of other people, or indeed, without being affected much by their disinterest.
Anyway, Kotch is employed as a sort of au pair for his grandson, living with his son and his wife. His loquacious and unsociable habits, however, drive his daughter-in-law up the wall and the embattled son decides it's time to discharge him of his duties.
Yes, it's another drama with an old man being shuffled around, but that's not really the meat of the plot. The actual interesting part comes when a young teenage babysitter is hired to supplement (or probably slowly replace) Kotch as caregiver, but she gets pregnant on the job and becomes a destitute single mother.
What as first is a side character who neglects Kotch as much as anyone else comes to hold a strong (asexual) fascination for the old man, and despite her consistent display of disinterest in him, he decides to help her through her ordeal as far as she'll allow herself to be helped.
The directing is spectacularly subtle. Kotch, the man who perhaps in his years of dotage has been seeing his emotions dull, experiences flashbacks to the time when he was like these young people, passing through the passions and milestones of a full and egocentric life and this contrasts with his thankfulness at still being able to be independent and yearning to be useful in some way to others. The young single mother, while in the midst of that egocentricity, always keeps old Kotcher at arm's length, and we only come to find after the fact that there was something of gratitude brimming under the surface. It's a bittersweet and unique dynamic that you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere else.
As I stated before, Matthau gives a adroit performance of a neglected ancient who seems to be on the brink of losing his sharpness, but can and wishes to still squeeze some meaning out of his life. A completely different character from the ones we've seen him play.
Honourable Mentions: Ikiru (1952) - A dying old man strikes up a romance for a day with a young woman and decides that the meaning of life is to be of service to his fellow man.