Photo by Kevin Stanchfield, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
In the same year that Private Benjamin made her an Oscar nominee, Goldie Hawn returned to the screen in a very different kind of comedy. Seems Like Old Times, written by Neil Simon and directed by Jay Sandrich, is a classic screwball farce updated for 1980, full of slamming doors, hidden husbands, and jokes that arrive with clockwork precision. Hawn plays Glenda Gardenia Parks, a big-hearted public defender caught between two men: her ex-husband, a fugitive writer, and her current husband, the district attorney who is prosecuting fugitives. It is a delicious premise, and Hawn plays it with the warmth and timing that made her one of Simon’s ideal leading ladies.
The story begins with Nick Gardenia, played by Chevy Chase, a writer living in a mountain cabin who is kidnapped by two criminals and forced to rob a bank. On the run, Nick does the only thing he can think of: he seeks help from his ex-wife Glenda, who still cares for him and who has a habit of taking in lost causes, from stray dogs to former clients working as her household staff. The problem is that Glenda is now married to Ira Parks, played by Charles Grodin, the Los Angeles County district attorney, a man of rigid principles who is campaigning to become state attorney general and who harbours a jealous dislike of Nick. Glenda hides Nick in her house, first in a spare room, then in ever more absurd places, while Ira hosts a dinner party for law enforcement officials downstairs. Chaos, inevitably, follows.
Hawn’s Glenda is the centre around which the farce spins, and she gives the character a moral weight that prevents the comedy from becoming merely mechanical. Glenda is not a woman torn between two lovers in a superficial way. She is a lawyer who believes in second chances, a woman who genuinely loves Ira’s steadiness and Nick’s spontaneity, and who must decide what kind of life, and what kind of honesty, she actually wants. Hawn plays Glenda’s compassion without sentimentality. When she defends Nick, she does so because she believes he is innocent, not because she is nostalgic for their marriage. When she lies to Ira, Hawn lets the audience see the cost of that lie in her face, even as the situation grows funnier. That balance, between farce and feeling, is what makes the film more than a joke machine.
Director Jay Sandrich, best known for his brilliant television work on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, directed only one theatrical feature, and Seems Like Old Times was it. His television experience serves him well here. He understands ensemble timing, he knows how to stage a scene so that every actor gets a laugh, and he keeps the pace brisk without losing clarity. The film’s best sequences, including the dinner party, the dog bed hiding place, and the courtroom finale, depend on precise choreography, and Sandrich stages them with confidence. He also gives Hawn room to breathe. Glenda’s quieter moments, talking with her staff, arguing with Ira, or trying to explain herself to Nick, are allowed to land before the next joke arrives.
The chemistry among the three leads is the film’s greatest pleasure. Chase, reuniting with Hawn after Foul Play, brings his signature blend of charm and clumsiness to Nick, a man who is innocent but hopeless at looking innocent. Grodin, one of the great deadpan comedians of his era, plays Ira as a man whose principles are both admirable and slightly ridiculous. His slow burns, his double takes, and his attempts to remain dignified while his household collapses around him are hilarious. Hawn, between them, is the only adult in the room who is also fully alive to the absurdity of the situation. She loves both men, she lies to both men, and she somehow keeps the audience on her side throughout, because Hawn makes Glenda’s kindness feel genuine rather than strategic.
Neil Simon’s screenplay, written specifically with this cast in mind, is full of his trademark wit: rapid exchanges, perfectly timed misunderstandings, and jokes that reveal character. Simon understood Hawn’s strengths, and he wrote Glenda as a woman whose humour comes from empathy. She jokes because she cares, not because she is trying to be funny. That quality, which Hawn embodies so naturally, gives Seems Like Old Times a warmth that many screwball comedies lack. The film is not cynical about marriage, or about second chances. It suggests that love, like law, is complicated, and that good people can make messy choices and still deserve happiness.
At the box office, Seems Like Old Times was a solid success, and it remains a favourite among fans of Simon, Hawn, Chase, and Grodin. For Past Tunes readers, it is a wonderful example of Goldie Hawn at her most charming in the early 1980s, just as she was moving into producing and taking greater control of her career. Glenda Gardenia Parks is a woman who tries to help everyone and ends up helping herself most of all, by learning to tell the truth. In Hawn’s hands, that lesson is funny, touching, and entirely believable.
Seems Like Old Times also deserves appreciation as a showcase for three comic styles working in perfect harmony. Chase brings loose, improvisational charm, Grodin brings tightly controlled exasperation, and Hawn brings warm, grounded empathy that holds the other two together. Without Glenda, the film would be a clever farce about two men. With her, it becomes a story about a woman trying to be honest in an impossible situation, and that honesty gives the jokes their bite. Neil Simon, at his best, always wrote characters who used humour to say difficult things, and Glenda is a perfect Simon heroine in that sense. She jokes with Nick because she cares for him, she jokes with Ira because she respects him, and she stops joking when the truth can no longer be avoided. Hawn understands that rhythm completely. She lets the audience laugh, then lets them feel the cost of the laughter, then lets them laugh again. That musicality is rare, and it is why Seems Like Old Times, though less famous than Private Benjamin, remains a favourite for viewers who love classic screwball comedy done with intelligence and heart.