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copyright ©1999-2003
DigsMagazine.com.
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Plot synopsis
Lowly insurance
clerk C.C. Baxter lives the typical lonely bachelor life in his New York
City apartment -- except for one little thing. One evening some time
back, Baxter lent out his apartment to one of his superiors at the
agency. Baxter's conveniently located city abode, apparently, provided
the perfect spot for the executive to bring his latest extramarital
fling. Soon, word spread, which is how Baxter has come to find himself
juggling a handful of execs eager to make use of the apartment for their
romantic rendezvous needs. Baxter's evening routine of a frozen dinner
enjoyed solo in front of the TV is all-too frequently cut short when he
receives yet another phone call asking him to clear out of his own home
for a few hours. Still, Baxter assures himself that the sacrifices are
worth it, as every one of the execs has promised to put in a good word
for him at the company. Eager to climb the corporate ladder, Baxter
grudgingly indulges the executives' whims for the sake of his career,
despite the fact that it often leaves him wandering around in the
wintery cold city late at night. When company boss Mr. Sheldrake asks
for use of the apartment, Baxter has no choice but to oblige. Still,
things look like they're paying off when Baxter finally attains that
coveted executive position, complete with his very own office. Brimming
with newfound confidence, he begins to pursue his longtime crush, pretty
elevator operator Fran Kubelik. But when it turns out that Sheldrake's
mistress and Baxter's new love are one and the same girl, Baxter finds
himself re-evaluating the decisions he's made.
Review
Featuring snappy dialogue and a briskly moving storyline, Billy Wilder's
Oscar-winning gem is funny, witty and charmingly lovey -- but it's not a
romantic comedy at heart. There's a definite dark undercurrent to the
sweet love story between Lemmon's C.C. Baxter and Shirley MacLaine's
Fran Kubelik that makes the movie more drama than comedy. In fact, the
scene that makes me giggle the most occurs after one of the movie's main
characters has just attempted suicide. It's both sad and hilarious -- in
the real-world way that human beings are, not in some calculated jokey
manner. Set primarily in the period just before Christmas and ending on
New Year's Eve, The Apartment perfectly captures the side of the
holiday season that most Christmas classics like to ignore -- namely,
the loneliness that comes when you realize you don't have a special
someone with whom to celebrate, and the dissatisfaction that arrives
when you discover that another year has passed, and you're still not any
closer to being the person you always thought you'd be. Baxter's really
kind of a dork, Kubelik can't seem to break the cycle of making bad
choices in men -- these characters have kind of sucky lives, and to some
extent, it's their own fault. Still, as played by Lemmon and MacLaine,
Baxter and Kubelik are impossible to dislike. (MacLaine's Kubelik is
particularly adorable; when she looks up from beneath her perfect pixie
haircut and through wide, spiky-lashed eyes, it's no wonder that every executive
at the company has been trying to lure her into a tryst.) In the end,
even the most cynical among us can't begrudge Baxter and Kubelik their
happy conclusion. —reviewed
by Yee-Fan Sun
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