Seems Like Old Times (1980)

Starring: Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn, and Charles Grodin
Grade: A+

Is chicken pepperoni really that good?

Summary

In Big Sur, California, writer Nick Gardenia (Chase) is staying at his friend’s cabin working on his next book. As he goes inside to grab something to drink, two men are outside peeking through the window at him. Finally, the two men, B.G. (Marc Alaimo) and Dexter (Judd Omen), knock on the door and act as if they are having car trouble and need to use Nick’s phone. Once he tells them he doesn’t have one, they admit they don’t have a car and hold him at gunpoint. In the car, they tell Nick how he’s going to help them rob a bank. They go to a gas station, and Nick tries his best to alert the attendant while they have small talk with him, but it’s never clear enough for the attendant to realize there’s a problem. Nick just comes off as some weird guy. Once they get to the bank in Carmel and circle around looking for a parking spot, they tell Nick he is to give the bank teller a note written by them alerting her of the stick up, to put the money in the bag, and how he will kill her if she makes a sound. They have Nick park across the street, and they give him a gun for the robbery, telling him to just show it to the teller when they get inside. Immediately, Nick puts the gun to Dexter’s head, but he reveals to Nick that it has no bullets, so Nick backs off uncomfortably. After they stop Nick from walking the opposite way once he gets out of the car, they walk him right up to the door of the Bank of the Pacific and force him in while they wait outside. Once Nick gets in line, the two enter behind him. As calm as can be, Nick gives the teller the note and she panics through it while putting as much money in the bag as she can. He tries to explain to her that it’s the doing of the two men across the room, but she’s too frantic to listen. A regular customer Mrs. Herman waits behind Nick, but he smiles to her and asks for her to go into the other line because he’s doing payroll, so she does. After he gets the bag of money, Nick tells the bank teller to relay to the police that he had nothing to do with it.

Nick turns and trips over the stanchion, so B.G. and Dexter help him up. Once Nick stands, he looks directly into the security camera, and he knows he’s screwed (“Oh shit.”).

Following this, a closeup screenshot of the security footage of Nick is handed to district attorney Ira Parks (Grodin), just as he gets off the phone with Governor of California Stanley (George Grizzard) who is backing Ira for the attorney general position. Because of the good news about the attorney general stuff, Ira wants to celebrate, but his co-worker Fred (Robert Guillaume) is the one who hands him the picture of Nick. At first, Ira doesn’t recognize Nick, saying he looks like his wife Glenda’s (Hawn) first husband. Well, Fred confirms that it is indeed that Nick. Fred tells Ira how Nick knocked off the Bank of the Pacific in Carmel, got over $7,000, walked in and handed the teller a note, flashed a gun, and walked out. If they want Ira for attorney general, this could potentially be his first case. Also, Nick was seen driving off with two unidentified men who didn’t get their picture taken. The fact that Nick spent two years in a Mexican jail previously will only add to Nick’s uphill battle. Though Ira points out that they never proved Nick was personally smuggling in the drugs, Fred argues they found him in the car with “5 kilos and 4 Mexicans”. Still, it was a 3-and-a-half-minute trial, which Ira didn’t appreciate. Considering Ira’s image going into this attorney general business, he knows the sooner Nick is caught, the better off they are. Currently, there are roadblocks, dogs, and the usual out on the prowl for Nick, so Ira adds to it by asking Fred if they can call the Air Force to ask for “saturation bombing”. Fred shakes his head. Ira’s wife Glenda is a public defender. She’s in court and Judge John Channing (Harold Gould) asks if there is a reason why a sentence shouldn’t be imposed on her clients on the spot. She doesn’t protest, so Channing says he’s willing to release her clients Robert Broken Feather (Ray Tracey) and Thomas Jefferson Wolfcall (Joseph Runningfox) and put them on probation. He goes on about how he doesn’t condone their behavior though, and they have to make restitution to the welfare department for the sum of $326.41 in damages.

Glenda responds by asking Channing what he would do if the government withheld his welfare checks for 6 months because of a clerical error, but he just says he would try to get along on his pension.

Continuing, he wants her two clients back in his court in three weeks and wants them to be employed or showing just cause as to why they are not. Otherwise, he will reconsider his position. Glenda tells Channing she will personally see to it that they have jobs. After this, Robert and Thomas thank Glenda outside the courtroom. They offer to buy her a beer, but she has to remind them they are on probation. Glenda also tells them she wants them both in her office at 9AM because there’s a ranch nearby that needs help with their horses, asking if they are interested. Unfortunately, they aren’t as well equipped for such a job as she hoped. Glenda goes to her car where her chauffer Chester (T.K. Carter) is cleaning up the vehicle. She updates him on the good news, but she notices his hat. He says he found it, but Glenda doesn’t believe him. Chester was a previous client of hers, and she made him a chauffeur to keep him from stealing. Chester argues that he did it because he wants to be as good a chauffeur as he is a stealer, so she kind of accepts his twisted logic because of his sincerity. Elsewhere, Nick is driving with B.G. and Dexter still. He tries to convince the two to let him go and promises to not say anything, so the two agree. Sadly, they don’t slow down the car. They just tell him to jump out whenever he wants. Eventually, Nick is thrown out of the moving car and rolls down a huge hill. Chester drives Glenda back to her house, and he brings up a potential raise. However, Glenda can’t afford him as is. She points out how this is her 12th case wearing the same suit. Before she departs, she tells Chester to be there at 8:15AM tomorrow. Glenda gets inside and is greeted by her five dogs and Ira. As Glenda talks to the housekeeper Aurora (Yvonne Wilder), Ira speaks to someone on the phone about the Nick case and how Glenda doesn’t know about it yet. Aurora isn’t in a great mood because of how busy the house is with all the different animals in the place, as a sixth dog has also found his way in. On the phone, Ira confirms his dinner with Governor Stanley for Tuesday and waves Glenda into his office while she walks by. He hangs up and pleads with her to get rid of the dogs, but she just passes off the barking as them not seeing her in a while.

They go outside to talk. Glenda gets preoccupied by seeing that the rabbits ate the corn she was growing until Ira gets her to ignore it for a second. He tells her the good news of Stanley offering him the attorney general spot. She hugs him in excitement, so Ira reveals the next piece of news of Nick robbing a bank. Right away, she doesn’t believe it because it’s unlike him, but Ira shows her the picture of Nick from the security camera. Later, Glenda is in bed still questioning the validity of Nick robbing a bank, though Ira argues that he may have needed the money after spending two years in a Mexican jail. Glenda points out how Nick went down there to write a piece on illegal aliens and wound up in jail for smuggling drugs, which also wasn’t like him. Ira notes how Glenda doesn’t seem to find the guilt in anyone. After she gets the dogs off the bed so he can come join her, Glenda asks Ira how he would feel if she defended Nick if they catch him. Naturally, he’s not cool with it. It doesn’t help that there is still another small dog under the blanket, prompting Glenda to pull it out and hold it in her arms to sleep. Wounded and disheveled, Nick is at a gas station during the nighttime and tries to buy a candy bar from the vending machine, but it doesn’t work. He tries to get his change back, but the machine is still messing up. He kicks it and falls down. Next, he pulls out the unloaded gun that the bank robbers gave him and he starts hitting the machine with it. It makes enough noise for the gas station attendant to come out and ask what he’s doing. While he explains how he didn’t get his Milk Duds, the gun is in his open palm, so the attendant holds up his hands in a panic. Nick explains that he doesn’t want money. He just hasn’t eaten in two days and is desperate, so he forces the attendant at gunpoint to open the machine with a pry bar. Once he does, all the candy falls out, and Nick tells him he doesn’t want anything with peanut butter. As he tells the attendant he isn’t a crook and that he just wants what he paid for, the attendant gives him a Zagnut because they don’t have Milk Duds.

Zagnuts have peanuts in it though, so I’m not sure why he was cool with it. Anyway, Nick grabs a bunch and has the attendant turn around and count to 600 or else he’ll be back tomorrow. One of the Zagnuts is stale though, and Nick throws it down in anger.

At Ira and Glenda’s dinner party, Chester works as a waiter and eats just as many snacks as he’s serving. Glenda calls him out on it, even though he tries to deny it. There are cries coming from the upstairs, so Ira and Glenda go to see what’s wrong. A guest of the party walked into a room and Glenda’s dogs jumped her, so she apologizes on their behalf. She goes in the room and finds Robert there watching his cousin box on television. He’s supposed to be watching the dogs, but he’s barely paying attention to them. Glenda asks where the little dog is, but Robert says he got out before going back to the TV. Walking through the kitchen, Aurora points Glenda outside when she asks where the dog went. Just then, Ira comes into the kitchen and asks for more clean glasses, so Aurora says something in Spanish to the other workers. To Aurora’s surprise, he knew what she said. Glenda goes to the backyard and two friendly cops greet her, as they are stationed outside to keep an eye on the party for Ira. She asks them if they have seen her little dog, and one of the cops said they heard something coming from the garage. The one cop offers to check on it for her, but she says she’ll take a look instead, as it’s the spot where she keeps the dog biscuits anyway. After telling the two cops that she’ll send out some sandwiches for them, she goes inside the garage to look for the dog. Upon walking inside, Nick grabs Glenda and puts his hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming. He tells her that he’s in trouble and he needs her help, though he’d understand if she doesn’t want to. She elbows him and yells at him for coming there. After he talks about how he hasn’t eaten anything and his injuries after being thrown out of a moving car, he asks to stay the night, but she immediately refuses because most of the guests in the house are looking for him. Accepting this, he just asks for some food, so she goes and gets it and has him hide in the car. He does try and flirt with her a bit, but she assures him that there is no chance of that ever happening. Once she exits, Thomas brings one of the girls in from the kitchen to the garage to make out in the car, so Nick has to discreetly get out of the same car to hide.

Inside the house, Chester is still sneaking food and Ira interrupts to ask where Glenda is. He makes noises to say he doesn’t know where she’s at. In the kitchen, Glenda grabs beer and two-day old chicken from the fridge that Aurora was going to eat and takes it out to the garage for Nick. She acts like it’s for her though and tells Aurora to not say where she went because she just wants five minutes alone. Once she leaves, Ira enters the kitchen and asks Aurora where Glenda went, and Aurora assures him that she’s not outside eating chicken. Confused, Ira nods his head and goes back into the party. Glenda sees another worker named Conchita outside smoking and tells her to go back in. Before she can get to the garage though, the two cops stop her and assume the chicken and beer is for them, so they take it off her hands. She goes into the garage to check on Nick and finds Thomas with the worker in the car making out. Frustrated, she tells them to go back inside since she’s still paying them to work this event. She turns on the lights and Nick pulls himself out from under the car and asks where the food is, but she explains how the cops took it and how he needs to go because he’s going to be caught with all these people around. Nick tries to make her feel guilty by mentioning how she’s the one person he thought he could count on, and it starts to work because she prides herself on being dependable. He continues this guilt approach by holding her face in his hands and getting oil on her cheek. With this, Glenda relents and says she will be back after the party is over. Nick insists he doesn’t want to hurt her or put her in any jeopardy, adding that he will leave if he does so. Just then, he trips and falls. She insists that his sad look won’t work on her anymore and adds that if he’s really hungry, there is a bag of dog biscuits in the corner. She turns the lights off and leaves, and Nick goes around the garage looking for them. Glenda goes back to the party and greets people, though they all look at her weird because of the oil smudge on her face. Ira finds her and wipes it off while asking what it is. She passes it off as a hot Mexican barbecue sauce and tells him not to eat it.

Eventually, the party comes to an end and Ira invites Glenda to bed. She tries to go to lock the back door so she can check on Nick, but Ira insists he already did and pulls her upstairs. At 2:09AM, Glenda is still wide awake and gets out of bed. Ira asks where she’s going, and Glenda says she can’t sleep because of her nerves, so she’s going to the garden to work them off. She argues that this is when the rabbits appear, so she can finally catch them. She goes downstairs and opens the kitchen door. The door hits Nick who snuck in to eat some chicken from the fridge. Though initially frustrated that he would do such a daring thing, she likes that the dogs still remember him. She gets some more chicken for him and suggests they get Ira and talk things out. With this, she asks if he actually robbed the bank. Nick talks about how he kind of did but walks around it due to lack of time, even though this could easily be explained in like 45 seconds. Right now, he just wants a place to stay, some money, and some clothes. Glenda wants him to call the police to give himself up on account of her and Ira doing everything they can to help him. She goes to walk upstairs to get Ira, so Nick pulls out the unloaded gun and threatens to kill them. Unafraid, Glenda asks if he’s that desperate that he would kill her, so Nick calmly explains “Well, I’d have to get some bullets first, but uh, then I can’t promise anything”. She knows he’s not serious and again tries to leave to get Ira, but Nick assures her that he’s innocent. With a tinge of disbelief in her voice, Glenda asks if it’s like the Mexico case, and he confirms the coincidence. In both situations, he was innocent. Nick reiterates how he was there to do a piece on illegal aliens, met a couple of guys at a bar, and slipped them $100 to have them show him how the network was run. How was he supposed to know that he was sitting on five pounds of heroin? Regardless, he’s not going back to jail. He again asks for her help, but Glenda tells him she won’t by breaking the law. As he takes her fruit bowl and brings up how she never should have married a DA, he promises to leave once she gives him a “money doggy bag”.

Still, Glenda refuses to help him, so he tells her to not count on him for support of Ira’s campaign. He grabs a bottle of wine and mentions how upset the dogs are before walking out.

As soon as he exits, she mulls over her decision because she does feel bad for him. After hearing the dogs whine, she relents and goes after Nick, finding him on the ground wrapped up in the hose somehow. She helps him up and tells him there is an empty room above the garage, but he has to leave in the morning. She helps the injured Nick up the stairs to the guest room as he playfully talks about how times like this make him wonder why they ever got divorced. In turn, she reminds him that times like this are the reason they got divorced. Glenda goes back to bed and tells Ira that she chased the rabbits for 3 blocks and just wants to sleep now. As they lay there with their eyes closed, Ira says he may need her help in the morning because he wants to set up a campaign office by cleaning out the room above the garage, the same place Nick is. Her eyes open and get wide-eyed, as she states emphatically that she will do it alone and for him to not worry about it. The next morning, Chester drives up and starts honking the horn for Glenda. Glenda wakes up late and starts to panic. As Nick tries to shave with a pair of scissors, Glenda goes to Aurora to ask if she saw Ira. Aurora says he took her broom and went out the back door but didn’t say what he was going to clean. Glenda runs outside to stop him right before he opened the door, telling him he has a phone call. As he tells her to take a message, Nick can hear Ira from inside the room and runs to hide under the bed. Ira walks in and starts sweeping the floor and a lot of the dust hits Nick in the face, with him covering his mouth. Glenda runs in with the little dog in her arms and tries to explain herself, which confuses Ira because he never saw Nick. She soon realizes this and recovers by talking about how they can turn this room into a terrific office. Moving on, Ira asks who was on the phone, so Glenda just says it was for her. This only yields more questions, as Ira wonders why she called for him then. She says it was in case it was for him, so Ira just chalks this up to Glenda not having her coffee yet.

Ira talks about needing a few more phones in the room, and Glenda puts the dog on the ground. The dog immediately goes under the bed, and Glenda pulls the blanket up to find Nick. Ira wonders what she’s doing down there, and she frantically mentions looking for outlets for the phone. Once Ira says they are over where the phone is, she just agrees that it’s a great spot for them. Just then, the dog won’t stop licking the shaving cream of Nick’s face and he coughs, prompting Glenda to instinctively say, “God bless you”. Ira asks what she said, she says she sneezed, he says “Gesundheit”, and she thanks him. Glenda tries to get him out of the room to talk in private, but this doesn’t make sense to Ira because no one else is in the room. Because of this, Ira has her sit down. He wants to know what’s wrong with her, but he doesn’t want to hear it if it’s about Nick. She admits it’s about Nick, and he flips. As they talk, the dog walks out from under the bed and back under, with Nick grabbing it. Glenda brings up how Ira doesn’t even have Nick in custody yet, but he seems to be convicted already in Ira’s eyes. Nick nods to himself hearing this. Ira insists Nick will have plenty of time to explain what happened and how he’s not convicted yet, but Glenda says she can explain what happened because she spoke to Nick last night since “he was the rabbit I was chasing”. Ira demands to know what he said, but Glenda refuses because it’s confidential information between her and her “client”, infuriating Ira. She says she will confide in him as Ira but not Ira as the district attorney. He says he’s Ira and not the district attorney so he can know what happened, but Glenda refuses to tell him because she can tell he’s acting like a DA with the way he’s asking questions. Ira pleads with Glenda to tell him where Nick is, so Glenda agrees to tell him what happened in Carmel on the grounds that he agrees to put Nick in their custody until a trial date is set. He refuses this because of the media frenzy that will follow, arguing it would put them on the cover of the National Enquirer, so she says they have nothing left to discuss.

Relenting and sitting on the bed, which goes directly into Nick’s face, he asks what happened in Carmel. With Nick using hand signals from under the bed that only Glenda can see, she tells his story. She talks about how Nick was staying at a friend’s cabin in Big Sur working on a book, two men kidnapped him and stole his car, they forced him at gunpoint to a bank in Carmel, hand the teller a hold-up note, they escaped up the mountain, took the money, kicked Nick out in the sand, and left him for dead. On top of all of this, she tells Ira she believes every word of it. Ira can’t believe she buys it. As Ira stands up from the bed, he steps on Nick’s pinkie, which she notices. As Ira reiterates Nick’s story back to her in disbelief, Nick tries to free his finger but can’t until Ira steps forward once Glenda says she saw Nick limping as evidence enough of him being thrown out of the car. Ira can’t believe that Glenda is defending a “convicted drug smuggler” and demands to know Nick’s whereabouts. She doesn’t say, so Ira storms out, adding how he’s worried about the future of their relationship and how he won’t be home for dinner tonight. Following his exit, Nick gets out from under the bed with a smart comment about Glenda not asking Ira for a suit for him to wear. She helps Nick sit down, and he continues about how good her speech was but how unbelievable the bank robbery story was, even though it was true. She looks outside the window and feels bad because she’s never hurt Ira like that before. Glenda is mad at herself for believing Nick and is even more mad at him for not taking things seriously. She questions whether he banged up his own leg on purpose to make things more interesting, and he counters with how she used to have a sense of humor. By the way, Nick says this as he goes back to shaving with a pair of scissors. She retorts, “I remember it. It was the day I married you”. She brings up his lack of maturity and wonders when he will grow up. Nick makes his way to the door, but she stops him because they will see him.

He appreciates her instincts to her protect her “loved ones”, but she assures him that Ira is her loved one. Auora calls from outside, so Glenda pops out to see what she wants. Glenda’s office called. Conchita and Rosita’s case have been pushed back to 10:30AM because she has to be with Robert and Thomas at 9:30AM since they tried to fight a police officer last night. They got picked up in a stolen car, which turned out to be Ira’s. Now, Glenda is even more stressed out. Aurora asks Glenda if she should make breakfast, but Glenda can’t even think about food at the moment. Of course, Nick tells her to make a bunch of food, so Glenda acts like she changed her mind and asks for a bunch of different foods for her to make. Glenda goes back inside the room and blames Nick for what Robert and Thomas did because all her focus went to him and she wasn’t able to keep an eye on them. She insists the boys aren’t criminals and that they would have brought the car back. If anything, they probably were just going to pick up their cousin at the hospital. Nick mentions how he’s going to leave, so Glenda stops him and pleads with him again to give himself up for all their sakes. He jokes to Glenda that her face is painted on a wall in a Mexican prison. Aurora calls for her again. This time, one of the dogs ran away, so Glenda jokes that she will get 6 new ones tonight. Checking on Nick again, Nick tells Glenda that he’s going away to try and bring in the bank robbers since it’s his only chance. He begins to say goodbye to her adding that last night, “Seemed like old times”. He kisses her and she kisses back for a moment.

He opens the door to leave but jokes that he was supposed to jump on a horse that isn’t there. Glenda tells him to wait there, and she will get him the money and the food, though this is the last thing she will do for him. Changing the subject, Nick asks her if she ever calls his name out when she’s making love and how Ira probably grinds his teeth when she does. This prompts her to open the door into his face, and he falls down.

With things just getting started, Glenda’s personal and professional quagmire in Nick is getting quite close to engulfing her completely.

My Thoughts:

In the vein of a 1940s-styled screwball comedy of errors, Seems Like Old Times is a hilarious throwback of a farce with an excellent trio of stars game for the unexpected happenings of Neil Simon’s consistently amusing screenplay. Really, it’s a film all about the comedy and how much can fit in regular settings but still find a place in reality. It might be thin in terms of character depth or emotional developments, but it’s not a film that focuses on it nor needs it. Regardless of where one might stand on the subject of if it’s needed or not, it becomes clear that there is just enough to explain why things come together and why the three main characters become intertwined in such an outlandish premise, letting the humor come naturally because of the defined personas of the leads and their roles within the story. When viewing Seems Like Old Times, you will see that the humor, rapport, and chemistry of Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn, and Charles Grodin is so undeniably entertaining, it overcomes any drawbacks of what one may consider a more “polished” story.

The film is a great modern replica of the screwball subgenre of comedy, a less used and underrated subgenre focused on fast-paced wackiness that can be almost cartoonish at times to enliven a regular story. Actually, it’s a style that is seen a lot more in theatrical productions today. With that being said, with how the story takes shape, Neil Simon’s screenplay is one that could easily be transferrable to the stage and succeed there just as well as it does onscreen, potentially even more so. A lot of it stems from the legendary playwright and screenwriter’s script and how it consists of the typical surprise entrances and exits, misunderstandings, picture perfect timing, humorous suspense in terms of people almost getting caught in the act, a quick pace, great comedic acting from all involved, and a boatload of quips and one-liners funnier than the last. If you miss this style of humor in movies, Seems Like Old Times is so much fun. If you don’t, you’ll wonder why there aren’t more like it when viewing the film. Though Jay Sandrich seems like a random choice to direct such a major Hollywood production in his one and only directorial effort within feature films, the idea deserves more credit than it gets. Considering the intricacies of how a screwball comedy works, the pace at which it runs at, and all the previous points mentioned in Simon’s writing that goes along with it, hiring a director famous for his work in sitcoms is a seamless match for the material. The crux of sitcom humor and how it’s modeled aligns perfectly with Simon’s screenplay, which is why getting Sandrich was quite genius. Combined this with a great cast, this movie was too funny to fail, no matter how many critics tried to pick it apart. It’s a movie that knows what it wants to be and doesn’t try to be more than that. It just wants to have fun and see how ridiculous it can be without sacrificing the viewer’s disbelief completely. In that regard, it does its job immaculately.

It cannot be stated enough. This cast came to play. The success of 1978’s Foul Play was found solely in the chemistry between Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn, so bringing them back together one more time was a delight. Truthfully, it’s a shame we didn’t see the two put together in more movies as time went on. In contrast to his work in Foul Play however, Chase plays the role of Nick Gardenia in a manner similar to his more well-known comedic persona in the funny, cocky, sarcastic, uncaring, and good-looking-and-knowing-it cool guy, with an overuse of pratfalls sprinkled in. As a huge fan of Chase, the only problem I had with his role as Nick was his reliance on pratfalls and slapstick when it was unneeded. It might have been the only situation in the movie where they were trying to be funny, and it didn’t translate. For instance, there was no conceivable way Nick could fall like that in the garage when walking along the car and talking to Glenda. In a similar situation, how in the fuck could he trip and get mangled in the garden hose like a baby deer in a fence? Those were the only two instances where the shoehorning of goofiness was felt. Other than that, the humor was well-placed and constant. Chase’s sardonic delivery as Nick, who despite being in this legitimately bad situation of being accused of a bank robbery he didn’t willingly commit, is hysterical. Not once does he react in a panic. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, joking playfully with Glenda and even finding time to flirt with her in his time of need. A perfect description of his character comes from Glenda early on with, “You’re in terrible trouble Nick. Try and behave like it”. He’s aware of his situation but is naturally confident under any circumstances, like when Glenda and Chester are pulled over with him in the backseat. When he’s asked who he is by the cop, Nick responds without missing a beat, “Freedlander…Harris J. Freedlander” and comes up with a description of a business model he comes up with on the spot comically talking about “We carve the heads of presidents out of driftwood, employ mostly veterans and the handicap…”.

The calm manner in which Nick responds is not only funny as all hell, but it aligns so well with how he screws around like he does and why him and Glenda really were complete opposites in their marriage yet made up for the other’s weaknesses. He’s calm when she’s not, and she cares earnestly when he doesn’t seem to. Right after he’s almost caught under the bed by Ira, he pulls himself out of it before sarcastically telling Glenda “Next time, I’m going to hide in your bedroom. You two are never in there” instead of freaking out, despite being inches away from getting them both in serious trouble. It’s not known whether Nick is reacting in such a careless way because he believes in Glenda that much, or he just has this inability to care deep in his bones. At most, we just accept that it’s who he is as a person, as Glenda’s little nuggets of revelations regarding their old marriage and how immature Nick was does fit his demeanor in his current state of duress, if you can call it that. They never delve deeper into the psyche of Nick, which is why critics talking about the thinness of the script are arguably warranted. Even so, it’s a movie that gets away with it because it doesn’t want to delve deeper into the person. It’s not needed to tell the story Simon wants to tell. Plus, it actually could hinder the tone or pace of the story if too much time is dedicated to it. Nick being in serious trouble but joking around and still using the time to mess with Glenda to where it borders on manipulation, knowing the position she’s in with her current district attorney husband, is just a classic Chevy Chase role that doesn’t need any further explanation. It’s just plain funny! He’s a goofy and kind of a dick, but he’s just too good at it to hate him, despite the trouble he’s causing. In an interview on The Joe Rogan Experience, Quentin Tarantino made a great point that the difference between Chase’s characters during this timeframe compared to the roles Bill Murray played is that Chase’s characters never learn. The roles Chase encompassed were that of the sarcastic dick from start to finish, while Murray’s characters start that way but find redemption and learn the error of their ways by the end.

I didn’t realize how true this statement was until viewing Seems Like Old Times, as the Nick Gardenia character is the perfect example of Tarantino’s statement. Even at his most desperate, Nick still chooses the worst possible decision to make himself laugh and doesn’t care about the result. Did he need to mess around in the hilarious courtroom sequence that was determining his outcome, like when Ira tells Glenda they need to have a long talk at home and Nick chimes in with “Anything special you’d like for dinner”? Did he really need to sneak into the house to take over as the waiter for the night when he knew Ira, Fred, and Governor Stanley would all be there and know very well who he is? No, but Nick is a jackass who makes light of every situation he’s in to the bitter end, and that’s why I love this movie and the comedic stylings of the legendary Chevy Chase. He even gets the last laugh twice over Ira, and he’s not even married to Glenda! He’s just that damn good and he knows it (“So long Ira. You take good care of our girl”). Again, it’s classic Chase. In her second pairing with Chase, Goldie Hawn is excellent alongside him, as the woman torn between her likable but annoying ex-husband and her current husband who doesn’t have the same heart she does. Hawn is one of the very few actresses who can play such a “do-gooder” role without it being corny. Here, she’s a public defender that believes in every single client she works with. It’s not necessarily that she believes in their innocence regarding their cases, but she does believe in their potential reform, which is why she fights for them. She still believes in the good in people, especially the one’s she knows personally. That is why she gives them so many opportunities to succeed and even hires them to do jobs for her and Ira around the house. Sometimes, she admits she can’t really afford to do it like with Chester, but she can’t help but see herself as their protector, the only person who can help these people overcome their criminal lifestyles. The charismatic Hawn makes her role as Glenda this beacon of positivity that the viewer can’t help but be attracted to due to her charm and heartfelt pleas in trying to help everyone

It gets to where she spreads herself so thin, she starts to have panic attacks due to the pressure. Charles Grodin’s Ira is the straight man of it all and kills with his deadpan reactions to what’s going on around him. He’s higher up in the law food chain and is much more cynical about criminals compared to Glenda. He’s also hungrier from a professional standpoint. Glenda is doing her job because she cares about people in need. Though Ira does care about people and wants a fair trial for all too (even defending Nick initially when talking about the Mexican prison case with Fred), he is not nearly as emotionally involved in his cases. He can’t be because of the position he’s in, and he wants to move up higher into the role of attorney general. Getting bogged down because he takes a vested interest in every person or criminal he comes into contact with isn’t worth his time, which is probably why Glenda is still a public defender and why Ira is where he is at. Regardless, this is all we really need to know regarding the descriptions of the principal characters to understand where the comedy of the story comes in. All they need to do is insert an uncaring, but in need of help Nick into the situation, and the characters’ personalities carry the humor from there. I bet once Neil Simon figured out who Glenda and Ira were when writing the screenplay, the words probably just started coming off the page in an instant once the Nick character was inserted. That’s how smart and snappy the writing is in terms of comedy, and Chase, Hawn, and Grodin are hysterical in performing it all. Glenda is so lovable, as she’s torn with trying to act tough with Nick because she knows how he is, but also relenting because she believes in his innocence and her heart won’t let him go out into the wilderness to be caught. Nick continuously undermining Ira deliberately in front of Glenda was gold, magnified by Chase’s wit and inarguable charm. You can see the little sprinkles of his manipulative tactics, but the jokes are too well written for us to not like Nick, like when Glenda tells him that she truly loves Ira. Nick responds by saying that he loves the way Glenda’s eyes curl up at him when she looks at him before adding a sly, “Sorry, what were you saying?”. There’s that and when he’s speaking to Glenda in the kitchen about giving up during the dinner party sequence.

Nick knows Ira’s name, but he jokingly gets it wrong by saying how it’s unfair to her and “Myron”, forcing her to correct him and say “Ira”, which he does. After Nick flirts with her heavily and talks about how strong but delicate her hands are and how some days “I thought they’d rip my back apart”, she takes a step back. He continues and starts kissing her, and she accepts it until she stops in a flustered state saying, “I’m going to get Myron”, prompting Nick to say “Ira”, and Glenda correcting herself. He still pursues and there are inklings of smiles coming from Glenda, but she stops herself because Nick is getting her confused. She just can’t handle a “lunatic ex-husband” and six other people at the dinner table. Once he kisses her again and she kisses back when Chester walks in, with her trying to explain that Nick surrendered to her and Nick jokes, “I just came to kiss everybody goodbye”, Glenda tells Nick to wait there so she can get “Hyrum”. Then, she corrects herself and says “Myron” before settling on “IRA!”. In terms of conversational humor and excellence in joke writing (and comedic acting to match), Seems Like Old Times excels. It also succeeds in drawn-out comedic sequences, milking every last bit of humor found in certain scenes without losing the viewer’s attention. The extended dinner party sequence that Nick intrudes on before taking over as waiter for a drunken Chester and eventually getting into a fist fight with Ira in the kitchen is laugh-out-loud good, and Hawn’s frantic responses to it all because of Nick’s presence (her reaction when Nick starts serving the food is priceless) and not being able to handle it for her guests cemented this comedy as one of the year’s best in this portion alone (“Oh, I’ve had him for years”). Then, you have the courtroom sequence in the climax, with the help of Harold Gould as the Judge who can’t believe the absurdity of their situation. It’s so hilariously done with expert deadpan reactions from the leads who know how bizarre it all is that I can’t see why anyone could hate this movie. It’s pure entertainment!

An example of the snappy dialogue accurately describing the chaos in the courtroom:

Judge: “Were you apprehended or surrendered?”

Nick: “Surrendered.”

Ira: “Apprehended.”

Glenda: “He was apprehended after he surrendered.”

Ira: “He didn’t surrender to me. Therefore, he was apprehended.”

Glenda: “He was going to after dinner”.

Judge: “Did you wait in the kitchen?”

Nick: “No, I had to serve dinner.”

*Judge loses it*

Because I find personal joy in seeing Charles Gordin get angry, Ira’s increasing frustrations with the help, especially with drunk Chester, was consistently amusing, and he plays off Hawn and Chase very well. The bit when he opens the door to the spare room to say one more quote to Glenda while she’s about to talk to Nick who’s hiding under the bed was great work, along with his exchange with Glenda about Nick stealing the car and him secretly being under the bed the whole time (“Why didn’t you just point down? I would’ve been mildly curious.”) In addition, Glenda’s mental unraveling as Nick continues to impede at the worst times was a great way to raise the stakes and also show why Glenda is so torn because she really does love Ira. Their rapport is honestly just as impressive as Hawn’s with Chase’s. Nick’s presence is just mucking things up and she genuinely doesn’t know how to react. Her hyperventilating and Ira changing his tune to try and make her feel comfortable as she panics before even suggesting to Ira that he “put some garlic around the window or a cross over the bed” is just another example of the wittiness of Sandrich’s film.

When talking about the nuisance that is Nick Gardenia, Ira states, “It’s clear to me that we are never going to have a moment’s peace until that man is out of our lives!”. What an understatement! Seems Like Old Times is a busy and chaos-infused cavalcade of outlandish entertainment, goofy humor, an amusing love triangle to center the action, great acting, and all-around fun.