Diamond in the rough...but WHERE'S THE DVD?!
Added 10/28/2009
This is a movie that NEEDS to be in DVD. Carol Burnett stretches her acting wings and I don't think Walter Matthau has ever been better. They are given a great supporting cast and a rather complex set of plot lines to weave and do so entertainingly. It's not that you'll say "WOW" at the end. It's just that you'll feel sad, happy, and satisfied all at the same time.
PLEASE Studio execs; are you listening? Can't you transfer this and sell it for $10.99 like the umpteenth version of Stripes?
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Burnett and Matthau Shine in Deeply Touching Tragi-Comedy
Added 2/17/2002
This is a warm, witty, ingratiating film that many viewers can identify with. It's about two not particularly compatible people (Pete and Tillie) who meet, marry, have a child, then attempt to make sense of each other and their unhappy marriage. They become strangers, torn apart as much by his marital infidelities as by their opposite outlooks on life. After ten years of a very shaky domestic situation they face one of the worst parental nightmares imaginable - the loss of their child to a terminal illness. The maddening pain of this event brings them together but, at the same time, highlights their very different philosophical attitudes. Walter Matthau in the role of the cynical, non-religious, philandering husband is given the wittier lines in the script which he spuns with impeccable timing and perfect ironic intonation. Carol Burnett plays the soul-searching, self-agonizing wife who needs to find the meaning of her son's death. Was it divine retribution? Some viewers feel that Matthau and Burnett deadpan their way through the entire movie. Their response very likely stems from having anticipated an uproarious domestic situation-comedy (something like an "I Love Carol"), which this film is definitely not. With the notable exception of one hilarious scene in which Tillie and a bitchy friend (played to comic perfection by Geraldine Page) have a brawl, this is essentially a tragi-comedy. Moreover, the two super charismatic stars of the movie empty themselves to play their rather ordinary characters with straightforward, self-effacing honesty. By 1972, when this film was released, Matthau was a celebrated oscar-winning screen character actor. However, Burnett's transformation from the slapstick queen of TV variety shows to the fine dramatic actress of subtlety and detail seen here is astonishing. Some critics and viewers were not prepared for it but quite frankly that was their problem, not hers. Burnett delivers a tearful scene (in which Tillie vents all of her anger at God and the Virgin Mary) with overwhelming conviction, yet her acting remains beautifully controlled. It is the most deeply affecting moment in the movie, one that will haunt viewers long after the end credits have passed. "Pete 'n' Tillie" was nominated for several Academy Awards including Best Screenplay.
9 out of 9 people found this helpful.
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Pete 'N' Tillie: an uneven comedy-drama
Added 6/6/2000
Pete 'N' Tillie is a film without focus or a main point. It tells the story of a 33 year old woman (Burnett) who enters marriage with an man who is a charming rascal who loathes religion and is unable to remain faithful. Through a series of what seem more like vignettes than a viable plot, the "story" is developed where Pete and Tillie marry, conceive a child and establish a marriage where Pete is merely a visitor--that is he is not an inspired husband. The couple do love their child and it is this child who keeps them together. The child dies and the marriage falls apart. In the end, however, Pete realizes that he wants to stay with Tillie, perhaps he loves her--the viewer certainly can deduct this from the film's last scene but perhaps they stay together more for custom than anything else. Who knows? At best, the film just rambles on through some scenes where the acting is unispired. Matthau and especially Burnett deadpan their way through their scenes. The only relief in this tedious film is the late Geraldine Page. Her Gertrude Wilson exudes class as well as crass. Even though Page's character has "money", she is still base and when called upon can be very bitchy. The highlight of her performance is where she is faced with having to reveal her true age. Watching Page hammer and haw is a delight. There is one distrubing scene and a shining moment for Burnett: Her anger at God and at the Virgin Mary for "killing her son" is both startling and distrubing. The Burnett character calls God a butcher and spits at the Virgin Mary. Burnett plays this scene with conviction; however, her subsequent voice over where she voices her regret for blaspheming both God and Mary is not that convicing. She goes back to her deadpan delivery. While this film does have its rare moments of joy (especially when the Page character appears)overall, the film is a disappointment. It is unfocused and the acting of both Matthau and Burnett is tedious, unspired and banal. Too bad: with different actors, the story of these two distaff and older people finding love at the end could have been one dynamite film.
2 out of 7 people found this helpful.
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DARK HUMOR ABOUT THE HUMAN CONDITION
Added 1/7/1999
This movie haunted me. It revealed the dark side of human nature, while on the surface it was light and witty. Carol Burnett was very serious, and Walter Matthau relentlessly outspoken, articulate and even poetic.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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DARK UNDERCURRENT TO HILARIOUS, DEAD-PAN HUMOR
Added 1/6/1999
It was rather amazing to see Walter Matthau and Carol Burnett deadpan most of the time. There was a strong undercurrent of cynicism in human relationships. Burnett is homely and gives up on marriage till the intense womanizer, Matthau puts the make on her. She surrenders and finds she enjoys sex, despite her having been brought up as a Catholic. She called him a 'pistol'. When she was undressing for the first time in her bedroom she said like she was preparing herself for surgery. He responded that her silken underthings were falling in surrender. He, among other things, was a poet with an ever wry sense of humor. The flic looked like the 50's, despite its coming out in 1972. It is not great, but very good.
2 out of 5 people found this helpful.
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