Neil Simon’s screenplays have a ‘nothing much happens’ quality to them.
Aliya looks at three of his most endearing examples…
Its a normal day.
You find yourself smiling at the memory.
Suddenly, the day is a little bit better.
That happens to me a lot with Neil Simons comedies.
He quickly became one of the most popular writers in the world.
His plays often made it to the screen, and Simon wrote a number of these screenplays himself.
Not a lot happens.
Will they make up?
Well, its not about the plot so much as the dialogue, which is so good.
ButBarefoot in the Parkretains more realism than those great films of the 1930s.
Uptight Felix Unger (Jack Lemmon) is getting a divorce.
Its all a bit too much, like being married again for Oscar.
Things are bound to reach a crisis point.
The Odd Coupleis all about Lemmon and Matthau.
Theyre so identifiable that Simon came back to the.
Okay, so weve got an apartment and a mismatched couple.
He doesnt know quite how to deal with Paula, who is quite a bitter character.
Theyre very different people, so of course theyll fall in love.
If theres one thing that Neil Simon scripts teach us, its that opposites attract.
The Goodbye Girlwas a huge hit at the time.
From these events come a really recognizable and warm form of humor.
But it takes a writer as good as Simon to capture them perfectly.
