The Marriage Fool

I watched this in the wee small hours of Saturday morning on Irish Television, RTE, and found it totally enjoyable. Never mind the obvious talent of Walter Matthau and John Stamos, for me the beauty in this film are the women. Carol Burnett and Teri Polo and the wives of the sons bring great humanity (if that's the right word) to this film. It was wonderful to see a film of this quality at 2 O'clock in the morning.

Well done RTE for showing it.

I have been asked to write more on this subject but I have run out of any more comments. This seems silly. It's like being back in school when you were asked to write an essay about collecting blackberries during the Summer and to ensure that the report had 3000 words or more, otherwise you won't get a prize. Surely you can make a comment for whatever length.!!! This just doesn't make sense!!!

"The Marriage Fool" (also known as "Love After Death") is an excellent made for TV movie. Much of this is because it addresses an important topic that is seldom talked about...widowers remarrying. Often, their children react very badly to 'new mom' and do a lot to undermine these second marriages...and so it's nice to see this addressed here.

The story begins when Frank (Walter Matthau) is attending his wife's funeral. Soon after, his son, Robert (John Stamos) convinces him to get out and have fun...and Frank does that. In fact, he soon meets Florence (Carol Burnett) and after whirlwind courtship, they decide to get married...and Frank's kids are, at best, ambivalent towards this.

At the same time, Robert begins realizing that despite his looks and success on the job, he's lonely....and he has a phobia about commitment. So, the story is not about Frank's journey but Robert's.

This is a very sweet film and it's nice to see Matthau in his penultimate movie. The cast is quite good and while the story has no huge surprises, it's sweet and well worth seeing. And, I also noticed that Stamos is quite nice here...one of his better performances. Overall, a very enjoyable film which will likely leave you feeling happy.

Check out that cast! The awesome walter matthau, carol burnett. After mom dies, the (fully grown, adult) kids don't approve of dad's new girlfriend. She's only been nice to them, but they still give her attitude. Dad and new the girlfriend make wedding plans. When (oldest son) Rob's girlfriend sees how he reacts, she realizes she needs a break from him. It's cute, but takes a while to get going. And that non-stop hallmark movie music! A little goes a long way. It's a pretty solid story about communication, but I probably wouldn't have been as interested if matthau and burnett weren't in it. It's okay. Directed by charlie matthau, walt's son. Based on the play by richard vetere. This was walter's second to last film. He and burnett must have enjoyed working together... they made three films !

The biggest surprise in this movie was an amazingly good performance by John Stamos. With 2 icons like Matthau and Burnett, you would expect that it would be their performances that would carry the load, but it is actually the relationship between Matthau and Stamos that is at the heart of this story. They have a wonderfully natural chemistry together, I'm betting that Stamos was in awe of the opportunity to work so closely with a master like Matthau and it was likely that closeness that drew out such a great dramatic performance by Stamos. Burnett is great as always, but her role is quite subdued and the real magic in this movie takes place in the exchanges between the 2 male leads. Terry Polo also gives a nice performance here. All in all this was a satisfying watch. A very simple story but acted with such a natural credibility by the ensemble cast and an intelligent script that it is elevated to being much better than average.

This is a film to enjoy with your family... John Stamos performance is good, and what can I say about Walter Matthau?, he carries great the movie in his shoulders.. The chemistry between Matthau and Stamos is perfect. This is the kind of movie to watch on a Sunday morning, or when you are in the mood of watching happy ending stories.