California Suite (1978)

	Directed by: Herbert Ross	COUNTRY USA GENRE Drama/Comedy NORWEGIAN TITLE California Suite RUNNING TIME 103 minutes
	Produced by: Ray Stark
	Written by (based on his play): Neil Simon

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Hannah Warren	Jane Fonda
Bill Warren	Alan Alda
Diana Barrie	Maggie Smith	½
Sidney Cochran	Michael Caine	½
Marvin Michaels	Walter Matthau	½
Millie Michaels	Elaine May	½
Harry Michaels	Herb Edelman
Bunny	Denise Galik
Dr. Chauncey Gump	Richard Pryor
Dr. Willis Panama	Bill Cosby
Lola Gump	Gloria Gifford
Bettina Panama	Sheila Frazier

Review

Uneven is an understatement when describing Neil Simon's alternately heartfelt and idiotic quiltwork California Suite. To start with the positives: It deals perceptively with the effects of the sexual and female liberation of the 1970s and portrays the confusion and unresolved positions the liberated had been left in. Simon suggests that the freedom has left the women confused and nonplussed, whereas the men have profited from their reduced responsibility in the wake of it all. He might have had a point – even if it is not the one most people had in mind.

The rest of this film, however, is largely pointless. Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby suffer themselves through a seemingly endless array of overdone and unfunny set-pieces of the worst slapstick comedy imaginable. There is no excuse for director Herbert Ross' poor handling of this material, and it only makes the contrast to the beautiful and tender portrayal of the Michael Caine/Maggie Smith relationship even more baffling. The strength of this, combined with the potent and relevant "Kramer vs. Kramer for amicable intellectuals" plotline, starring a great-looking Alan Alda and an inspired Jane Fonda, should have been treated with more respect. Instead, California Suite comes off as a formal disaster, and a very unnecessary one at that.