“business or pleasure?” “oh, yes.”

the first thing i noticed about ‘hopscotch’ was what a strange little cast it has. maybe it didn’t seem so in 1980, but looking at it from 2008, it’s hard for me not to associate each actor with a distinct character that they subsequently played, or played before, but i had to catch up, being only 2 in 1980. there’s walter matthau, who just screams ‘hello, dolly!’ (yes, i watched too many musicals as a child.) herbert lom can’t be anyone by inspector dreyfus from the pink panther movies. i kept expecting a very dapper young sam waterston to start blustering his way through a death penalty case. glenda jackson i think i’ve only ever seen in ‘marat/sade’, which actually goes nicely with the shivers that i get whenever i see ned beatty. ‘deliverance’. shudder.

it’s sort of a dippy little story, with matthau as miles kendig, a cia field agent whose renegade ways have relegated him to desk duty until retirement. rather than take that, he immediately mixes up some files (should it be that easy to screw with things in the cia file room?) and heads for salzburg, where his mannish (sorry, glenda, but it’s true) lady-friend waits with her guard dog. someone mentions off-hand that he should write his memoirs, so he immediately dashes them off and sends them chapter by chapter to the cia, fbi, kgb, and any number of other international covert agencies that identify themselves with initials. the rest of the film plays out as a cat and mouse game with matthau merrily dropping clues across the world that a whole slew of bumbling agents just can’t seem to pick up in time to catch him.

walter matthau is pretty cute, in his crusty, hunch-back, droop-eyed way. he seems to be having such an awfully good time. final verdict is that it’s a pretty goofy little movie, but very charming, and if ned beatty didn’t keep dropping the f-bomb every five minutes (why is he the only one swearing?) then you could even watch it with your mom.