Grumpy Old Men (film)

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Grumpy Old Men

Directed by	Donald Petrie
Produced by	John Davis
Written by	Mark Steven Johnson
Starring	Jack Lemmon Walter Matthau Ann-Margaret Burgess Meredith Daryl Hannah Kevin Pollak
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Cinematography	Johnny E. Jensen
Editing by	Bonnie Koehler
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	December 25, 1993 (U.S. release)
Running time	103 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$35.1 million
Followed by	Grumpier Old Men
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Grumpy Old Men is a 1993 Warner Bros. romantic comedy film starring Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, and Ann-Margret, with Burgess Meredith, Daryl Hannah, Kevin Pollak, Katie Sagona, Ossie Davis, and Buck Henry.

Directed by Donald Petrie, the screenplay was written by Mark Steven Johnson, who also wrote the sequel, Grumpier Old Men (1995). The original music score was composed by Alan Silvestri.

1 Plot summary
2 Cast and Crew
3 Bonus scene
4 External links

[edit] Plot summary

Two elderly men, John Gustafson (Lemmon), a retired history teacher, and Max Goldman (Matthau), a retired television repairman live in Wabasha, Minnesota. Both are widowers. Despite having been friends early in life, and living next door to each other for years, the men do not get along and argue incessantly.

Subplots involve John's daughter Melanie (Hannah), who is going through a separation with her husband, Mike; Max's son Jacob (Pollak), who is running for mayor of Wabasha; John's 94 year old father, "Grandpa Gustafson", or "J.W" (Meredith), who enjoys talking about women, drinking beer and fishing; and John's troubles with the IRS, to whom he owes $57,000 in back taxes, late fees, and penalties (which he is determined to avoid by any means necessary, which includes climbing out of a second floor window and running away every time an IRS agent, played by Buck Henry, comes to his door).

Ariel, an attractive widow and former art teacher (Ann-Margret) moves into the house directly across the street from Gustafson and Goldman. Both the men find themselves competing to win Ariel's heart, but ultimately Ariel and John find themselves falling in love, which annoys Max. Eventually, the feud reaches a pinnacle when their arguments and pranks get worse, including a bitter confrontation between the two while ice fishing, which ends when Max uses his car to push John's ice shanty into a thin-ice part of the lake, causing it to sink.

Both get into a brief fistfight until they are separated by John's father. Max then accuses John of stealing Ariel as he did May (John's late wife, presumably also the object of Max's affections years ago). John counters by telling him that having been married to May for 20 years, she "was no prize", and that he would not have met his wife Amy if he had had May, stating that Amy was the better of the two.

"I can't wait for another Amy," a defeated Max tells John. "I ain't got time."

Hearing the truth in his former friend's words, John gives up and breaks it off with Ariel (thinking that Max deserves her more), and starts to stew inside with things coming to a head on Christmas Eve when Melanie and Mike (who decide to patch things up temporarily) come over and John leaves in a huff to go to a bar.

With Jacob and Melanie's insistence, Max tries to patch things up with John which fails miserably. John leaves, heading for home, but suffers a major heart attack on the way. Max, determined to fix the problems he had with John and Ariel, follows him, only to find him in the snow and being forced to call 911. The heart attack causes Max to realize that John and Ariel are meant for each other. Max arranges to patch things up between them with Ariel visiting him in the hospital, promising him that she'll wait to renew their friendship until he's well.

In the meantime, Max learns how much John's financial obligation to the IRS is after it has obtained a court order to seize John's house to pay off his tax debt. Max decides to convince Jacob, who by this time has won the election and has been installed as mayor, to obtain a cease and desist order from the court to protect the house. (For prankstering's sake, Max also throws a dead fish in the IRS agent's car and messes with the snow on John's roof causing it to fall on the IRS agent and bury him on the front steps.)

John leaves the hospital and he and Ariel wed, with Max providing a nice wedding gift by providing a loan to pay off John's remaining back taxes, after Jacob successfully gets the IRS to waive the penalties, late fees and interest (reducing his obligations to about $13,000). The movie ends with Jacob and John's daughter Melanie appearing to begin a romantic relationship.

Nearly the entire film takes place in the depth of winter, with the final wedding scene in early spring.

[edit] Cast and Crew

Actor	Role
Jack Lemmon	John Gustafson
Walter Matthau	Max Goldman
Ann-Margret	Ariel Turax
Burgess Meredith	Grandpa Gustafson (J.W.)
Daryl Hannah	Melanie Gustafson
Kevin Pollak	Jacob Goldman
Ossie Davis	Chuck (Bait Shop Owner)
Buck Henry	Mr. Sneyder (IRS Agent)

[edit] Bonus scene

After the closing credits, a bonus scene appears on screen, where Walter Matthau supposedly breaks the fourth wall. While sitting in his bathtub, he says to the viewers, "If I knew there was going to be a nude scene, I would have asked for another million!"