Prisoner of Second Ave. (1975)

The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975) – A middle-aged executive is let go by his company and has to re-imagine his life and self-image.  And that’s only the beginning of the fun in this Neil Simon dark comedy.

Director Melvin Frank                                     Starring Jack Lemmon, Anne Bancroft

Why I Liked It – Two great actors and a great script offer up a brilliant experience.

 A story that centers on job loss and a nervous breakdown may not suggest the work of Neil Simon.  But the master storyteller weaves a beauty here.  And when you’re given two actors of the skill of Lemmon and Bancroft, you know it’s going to work.  Lemmon plays the twitchy, neurotic New Yorker that was his bread and butter for so many years.  Bancroft balances the pair with her stable, loving wife, with just enough acerbic New York to make it fun. Watching them walk the two of them make their way through one disaster after another, all of it narrated by classic Simon dialog is a treat.

The topic of the movie is kind of grim at the surface.  But in the hands of Simon, Lemmon, and Bancroft, it balances it all nicely.  This is classic “black comedy”, where a serious subject is treated in a light-hearted manner.  Mental health issues (specifically depression) are talked about at a time when doing so wasn’t the norm.  The movie goes beyond that, looking at causes for the depression.  Lemmon’s character is defined by his job.  Losing that job attacks his understanding of who he is and his place in the world.  His reaction to being robbed, dealing with well-meaning but unhelpful relatives, and venting his anger inappropriately on his neighbors, give some depth to the story.  At the surface, it’s all very funny.  Underneath there are serious questions being asked about how society worked then, and still works today.

As a man of (cough, cough) “late middle age” who is piecing together part-time work while searching for a full-time job, there was a personal connection here.  It’s too easy to get caught in the false values of our possessions or allowing something outside ourselves establish our self-value.  Early optimism is shown to be shallow gilding that is quickly worn away.   There are elements of a modern telling of the story of Job as well.

Take all the ingredients together, and you end up with a great movie!

Rating – **** Recommended