Thursday, June 22, 2023

Hopscotch (1980)


HOPSCOTCH  (1980)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Ronald Neame
    Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Sam Waterston,
    Ned Beatty, Herbert Lom, Severn Darden 
A cloak-and-dagger comedy starring Walter Matthau as a veteran CIA op who refuses to go away quietly when he's removed from the field. Instead, he goes off the grid and starts writing his memoirs, dispatching them from various locations a chapter at a time, while eluding the ex-colleagues who are now out to eliminate him. There's no real suspense in this, and you can't help wishing Glenda Jackson had more to do, but the writing's clever enough, and Matthau makes playing a spy on the run look as easy as drinking a beer. He makes that look easy, too. 

Glenda Jackson
(1936-2023)