An Espionage Romp in Minneapolis

On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, Ronald Neame’s globe-trotting 1980 film Hopscotch will pop up in Minneapolis for several screenings at the Trylon Cinema, as part of a ten-film series celebrating the careers—both joint and solo—of real-life best friends Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. Propelled by the remarkable chemistry of stars Matthau and Glenda Jackson, and dynamically orchestrated by Neame from start to finish, the espionage comedy follows former CIA agent Miles Kendig (Matthau) as he hatches a plot to get back at the agency’s top brass by publishing an explosive tell-all memoir. During the international cat-and-mouse game that ensues, he teams up with old flame Isobel (Jackson), a Viennese widow who is herself no stranger to spycraft. “The regard the characters have for each other is the glue that holds the movie together,” writes Glenn Kenny in his essay for our edition of Hopscotch. “And their banter—with Jackson’s tart briskness of delivery a perfect foil for Matthau’s immaculately timed drawlings—is . . . choice.”