This is the first film directed by Elaine May (who also stars) who was Mike "The Graduate" Nichols's comedy partner. It's an odd little number: it has a very distinctive look and feel. Everyone talks constantly (or rather, mumbles mostly), no thought goes unexpressed, and the camera tends to move around rather aimlessly. It tells a very simple story: rich wastrel Henry Graham (Walter Matthau, acting posher and more restrained than normal - instead of his scheming registering in his expressions, he just reveals it with his words) finally exhausts the trust fund that has been keeping him in the high life and has to find a new source of funds, despite lacking charm or talent. (There's an extended sequence after Henry's lawyer has finally tracked Henry down to deliver the bad news that gives you a taste of the style I mean, as Henry is filmed mournfully wandering around muttering "I'm poor!" and sadly visiting all the favorite haunts that he can no longer afford to visit, just to say goodbye.) His solution (suggested by his faithful butler, who, unusually, has a Yorkshire accent)
is to find a woman to marry. There appears to be no shortage, but he deems most of them unsatisfactory (in one instance, a particularly frisky matron is about to remove her bikini top and he flees, shouting something to the effect of "No! Don't let them out!"). There is a time limit for his search, because he has borrowed $50,000 from his uncle
(who reared him out of a sense of duty to his brother, but has ill-disguised loathing towards him) and if he doesn't repay it within a month he loses all of his remaining worldly goods (including his beloved Ferrari, which is always breaking down because of "carbon on the points") valued at about half a million, which he has put up as collateral. There are only days left when he comes across chronically shy and clumsy Henrietta (Mays), a keen but lonely botanist, who lives all alone (apart from a retinue of servants who exploit and ignore her) in a massive old house bequeathed her by her industrialist (or composer - Henry's fellow club member whom he grills about her wealth isn't sure) father. Her clumsiness and lack of refinement (he offers her vintage wine but she prefers wine coolers using "Mogen-David extra-heavy Malaga wine with soda water and lime juice," which he has to pretend to enjoy while wooing her, despite admitting to his butler that it is taking the enamel off his teeth) disgusts Henry, and he plots to murder her as soon as is convenient. However, in a visual joke, he misses a prime opportunity on their honeymoon, as he is engrossed in a guide to toxicology as she hangs precariously off a cliff collecting a fern.
This fern, however, is part of the meaning of the film's title, for it is a previously undiscovered type, which she insists be named Alsophilia grahami after him, something that touches him in a way that catches him off guard. (In a subplot, the servants, which Henry immediately dismisses, are in league with Henrietta's lawyer, who has had his eye on her for years, and he tries desperately to sabotage the wedding
(with the help of Henry's uncle, who wants that half-million worth of assets) but Henrietta doesn't care that Henry is in fact penniless, and marries him anyway.) Henrietta discovers that Henry has somehow acquired a BA in History along the way and tries to encourage him to teach History at her university so that they can grade papers together in the common room, an idea he does not find appealing. However, he does take her up on the offer to accompany her on her annual research trip to the remote parts of the Adirondacks, as this offers the perfect chance to bump her off. But this is after a period of cohabitation during which, as the butler (who is alarmed by Henry's murderous intentions and appears rather fond of Henrietta - indeed, the butler seems to be the only decent male character in the film) points out, Henry has transformed from a rich layabout into a person with very definite skills: at going through finances, at running a household, at looking after Henrietta (in one of the best bits of physical comedy, he helps her wrestle her Greek-style nightgown, which she has put on wrong) (quote: "Oh no, I forgot to check her before she went to school this morning. She'll be wandering around all day with price tags dangling from her sleeves"). Of course, this is the other meaning of "New Leaf," and it will surprise nobody that he turns down a chance to drown the non-swimmer Henrietta when they get dumped from their canoe
in the rapids, especially once he realizes he's lost the fragment of frond she had encased in a token for him, that he initially scorned. A very good advertisement for marriage. He's even softening on the idea of teaching history, as they walk off together, dripping wet, into the woods. This film is much-praised, and looking back, it does have a lot of excellent lines, but often delivered in such an offhand fashion that you don't really notice them. And it has such a shambling quality to it (very Robert Altman-esque) that you don't notice how well-structured it is. A sneaky charmer. Much like Henry, really.
(Sidenote: the film May intended to make was much longer, and had Henry successfully poison two characters (including Henrietta's lawyer, who, to be frank, had it coming), but the studio wrestled it away and cut it down. As most people agree, this was not a bad thing.)
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