Review of The Apartment (1960) by Raquel P — 21 Nov 2008

I've spoken with a few people that actually saw this movie in its heyday and from what I understand, it was very groundbreaking for its time. However, I was bored to tears. This movie is long. Really long.

Unnecessarily long. Did I mention that it was long? I don't think movies should lose their value merely because of longer running times, but this movie could have said what it had to say in an hour and ten minutes at most.

There were so many schlocky scenes that felt like filler between those that actually bore relevance to the plot. And the sad thing, for me, was that I really was not at all engrossed with what was actually important.

I found Lemmon's character to be an excruciating annoyance whose "doormat to self-assured man" transformation was both unbelievable and unfathomabIe. Also, I thought Maclaine's character was contemptibly pathetic and that the only reason the audience forgives her is because she's so "gosh darn pretty!" I felt this point was validated when all those infatuated with this film could only seem to remember how attractive she was in it.

Sorry, but I cannot for the life of me understand why this is considered a classic. I have seen others of the same ilk that I feel have done a far better job at weathering the test of time.