The Apartment

Directed by Billy Wilder, The Apartment follows Jack Lemmon’s C.C. Baxter as he finds himself falling for the woman (Shirley MacLaine’s Fran Kubelik) having an affair with a high-ranking executive (Fred MacMurray’s Jeff Sheldrake) at his work. Filmmaker Wilder, working from a script written with I.A.L. Diamond, delivers a stylish comedy that only grows more and more captivating as time progresses, as the picture, which runs an unreasonably overlong 125 minutes, admittedly does suffer from an erratically-paced first half that’s just about as hit-and-miss as one could possibly envision. It’s clear, then, that such less-than-engrossing stretches are alleviated by Wilder’s eye-catching visuals and a raft of deservedly iconic performances, with, in terms of the latter, Lemmon’s typically charismatic and downright hypnotic work as the appealing central character remaining an ongoing highlight within the proceedings. (Both MacLaine and MacMurray are quite good here as well, to be sure.) The Apartment‘s transformation into a spellbinding endeavor is triggered by a midsection that focuses on the growing bond between Lemmon and MacLaine’s respective figures, which ultimately does pave the way for a completely engaging and rewarding final stretch that’s capped off with a note-perfect final scene – with the final result a top-tier romantic comedy that has, notwithstanding a rocky opening hour, aged fantastically well in the years since its 1960 release.

**** out of ****