A New Leaf

Directed by Elaine May, A New Leaf follows idiosyncratic playboy Henry Graham (Walter Matthau) who devises a plan to marry a rich woman (May’s Henrietta Lowell) in an effort at sustaining his lavish lifestyle. It’s a promising setup that’s employed to increasingly (and distressingly) underwhelming effect by May, as the filmmaker, working from her own screenplay, delivers a sluggish comedy that remains frustratingly unable to capture the viewer’s interest from start to finish – with the arm’s length atmosphere compounded by an recurring emphasis on jokes and gags of an often aggressively unfunny nature. (It would, in the final analysis, be much easier to overlook the movie’s many missteps had May been able to elicit even a single laugh from the viewer.) There’s little doubt, then, that A New Leaf’s sporadically tolerable atmosphere is due almost entirely to Matthau’s broad, go-for-broke turn as the impressively reprehensible central character, and it’s clear, as well, that the picture benefits from the inclusion of a small handful of admittedly entertaining sequences (including and especially the stretch wherein Henry gleefully deals with Henrietta’s less-than-professional assortment of employees). And while the film does conclude on a sentimental yet surprisingly affecting note, A New Leaf has long-since cemented its place as a disappointing misfire that generally feels much, much longer than its 102 minutes.

** out of ****