Film
Plaza Suite
Neil Simon's *Plaza Suite* is three short plays in one hotel room, with Walter Matthau playing three different men on three different days. It's a comedy that takes marital discord, seduction, and family panic as its subjects, shifting tone expertly between melancholy and farce. Warm, occasionally bitter, always recognisably human—the kind of thing that makes you laugh and then sit quietly for a moment.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like sharp, talky comedy built from small domestic humiliations, and enjoy watching one stage-bound room hold three different kinds of unhappy couple.
Skip it if you want a plot that moves, since these are three static sit-down conversations in a single room and the jokes lean on wordy back-and-forth rather than action.
What it asks of you: Expect to sit still for about two hours in one hotel suite, with patience for stagey dialogue and a tone that drifts between wry and wistful.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
California Suite1978
Alan Alda and Jane Fonda navigate a marriage in crisis across one Beverly Hills hotel suite. It has the same Neil Simon DNA as *Plaza Suite*—fractured relationships, comedy that doesn't look away from the hurt, and performances that find the real person inside the joke.
But The episodic structure means there's no cumulative emotional build; some sketches land harder than others, and the tonal shifts can feel jarring if you're not in the mood for them.
The Goodbye Girl1977
Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason in another Neil Simon script that mines comedy from genuine incompatibility and the everyday failures of intimacy. It's lighter than *Plaza Suite* but has the same gift for making you care about people who annoy each other.
But The sentimentality creeps up on you. Some viewers find the romantic resolution too neat given how much damage these two have done to each other.
Barefoot in the Park1967
Robert Redford and Jane Fonda as newlyweds learning that marriage isn't the fairy tale they imagined. Neil Simon again—he understands that the funniest moments happen when love is complicated and the people in it are trying their best and still failing.
But It's very much a product of the '60s, and the gender politics haven't aged gracefully. Redford's character in particular lands differently now than it did fifty years ago.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Plaza Suite
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
A Woman Under the Influence1974
Both examine marriage through the microscope of intimate spaces and accumulated small failures. Both understand that the funniest things about long-term partnership are also the saddest.
John Cassavetes directing Gena Rowlands as a woman in marital freefall. Like *Plaza Suite*, it's about marriage as a site of comedy and pain, but Cassavetes abandons the structure of well-made comedy entirely—it's raw, agonized, improvised-feeling. The marriage here is horrifying and real in ways Simon couldn't reach, but it shares the core belief that relationships are worth examining in all their ugliness.
But It's emotionally exhausting and formally challenging, shot like a documentary of a breakdown rather than a scripted comedy. The performances are so naturalistic they can feel uncomfortable to watch.
More like this (7)
The Marrying Kind1952
Judy Holliday and Aldo Ray as a couple in divorce court, telling their story through flashbacks. It predates Simon but has the same instinct: that comedy and sadness live in the same room, and a marriage's failure can be both funny and genuinely devastating.
But The pacing is leisurely by modern standards, and the film's ultimate message about marriage staying sacred may feel dated or preachy depending on your outlook.
Same Time, Next Year1978
Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn meeting in the same hotel room once a year for decades. It's *Plaza Suite*'s spiritual cousin—confined space, relationship intimacy, the comedy and tragedy of how people change. Unexpectedly moving.
But The passage-of-time sequences rely on makeup and costume changes that can look awkward. Some find the whimsy saccharine rather than touching.
Chapter Two1979
James Caan and Marsha Mason in another Neil Simon adaptation about grief, remarriage, and the impossibility of simply moving on. It has *Plaza Suite*'s emotional honesty but focuses it into something more concentrated and sorrowful.
But The first half dwells in depression for a long time before the romantic plot kicks in. Some viewers find it a slog to get through before things improve.
Starting Over1979
Burt Reynolds and Jill Clayburgh in a divorce comedy that understands how awkward and genuine and hilarious it is to rebuild a life after marriage ends. It has Simon's feel for the particular comedy of incompatible people trying.
But Reynolds' performance can veer into mugging. The film's attitude toward women and relationships is solidly seventies, which some will find dated.
Nothing in Common1986
Tom Hanks and Jackie Gleason as an estranged father and son forced to reckon with each other. It has the *Plaza Suite* DNA—people in conflict in tight quarters, discovering truths neither wanted to know, mixing comedy with real weight.
But It's uneven in tone and doesn't entirely know whether it's a comedy or a drama about aging and mortality. That ambivalence works sometimes and feels unfocused other times.
Umberto D.1952
Both trust that watching ordinary people navigate ordinary indignity, without sentimentality, is profoundly moving and occasionally funny. Both refuse easy answers about human connection.
Vittorio De Sica's neorealist masterpiece about an elderly man and his dog, navigating indifference and the cost of simply continuing to exist. It has nothing to do with *Plaza Suite* on the surface, but both are comedies about human dignity and the way we survive each other—one tracing the arc of a marriage, this one the arc of old age. Both find their humour not in jokes but in the specific, stubborn reality of being alive.
But It's profoundly sad in a way that offers no comfort or resolution. The pace is slow and the plot is minimal. If you want entertainment rather than an experience, this will feel punishingly sparse.
Scenes from a Marriage2021
Both are structurally built around watching a single relationship from multiple angles. Both understand that marriage is the central text we write with our lives, and both read that text unflinchingly.
Ingmar Bergman's six-hour television series following Marianne and Johan through a marriage from its peak to its dissolution. It's *Plaza Suite*'s dark mirror—Simon's comedy comes from watching people fail gently; Bergman watches them fail catastrophically, with nowhere left to hide. Both are about the gap between what we want from marriage and what it actually gives us, but Bergman finds no comedy at all, only clarity.
But It's relentlessly bleak and often brutal. The series is a commitment—six hours without diversion or relief. Bergman's style is austere, and if you're looking for entertainment or catharsis, you won't find either here.
People
Cast
Walter MatthauSam Nash / Jesse Kiplinger / Roy Hubley
Maureen StapletonKaren Nash
Barbara HarrisMuriel Tate
Lee GrantNorma Hubley
Louise SorelMiss McCormack
Dan Ferronebellboy- Jose Ocasioroom service waiter
- Thomas CareyBorden Eisler
- Jenny SullivanMimsey Hubley
Augusta DabneyMrs. Eisler
Alan NorthMr. Eisler
Directing
- Arthur HillerDirector
Writing
- Neil SimonTheatre Play
- Neil SimonWriter
Production
- Howard W. KochProducer