The Apartment (1960)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:40
Fresh:36
Rotten:4
Average Rating:8.3/10
Consensus: It has perhaps aged poorly, but in The Apartment, director Billy Wilder's customary cynicism is leavened here by tender humor, romance, and genuine pathos.
Theatrical Release:11-07-2008
Synopsis: Billy Wilder's THE APARTMENT blends his customary harsh cynicism with a humane streak that appears only fleetingly in his films. It stars Jack Lemmon as C.C. Baxter, an office clerk who curries... [More]
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Edie Adams
Director: Billy Wilder
Reviews for The Apartment
| Tomatometer | Critic | Review | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Click to read the article Full Review |
|||
|
Click to read the article Full Review |
|||
 |
A true classic. It's about advancement, ambition, corruption and adultery, and it operates as both a satire and a sorrowful romance. Full Review |
||
|
|
Diamond-sharp satire with a brilliant performance from Lemmon. Full Review |
||
|
5/5 |
This comedy tells truths about American business and sexual morés as uncomfortable now as they were in 1960. Full Review |
||
|
5/5 |
Quite simply one of the finest comic romances ever made. Full Review |
||
|
5/5 |
Wilder and IAL Diamond's brilliantly witty screenplay has a serious undertow as it savages corporate ethics and conjugal infidelity. Full Review |
||
|
|
A comedy of men's-room humours and water-cooler politics that now and then among the belly laughs says something serious and sad about the struggle for success, about what it often does to a man, and about the horribly small world of big business. Full Review |
||
|
4/4 |
Click to read the article Full Review |
||
|
5/5 |
Ah, Lemmon and MacLaine... what poetic chemistry.
|
||
|
|
Most of the time, it's up to director Wilder to sustain a two-hour-plus film on treatment alone, a feat he manages to accomplish more often than not, and sometimes the results are amazing. Full Review |
||
|
B- |
The overlong drawn-out one-hook themed Apartment seemed a tad more bare than furnished. Full Review |
||
|
|
'The Apartment': The Film That Defines Me Full Review |
||
|
3.5/4 |
Billy Wilder somehow took a story about infidelity and suicide and made it into a comedy. Full Review |
||
 |
I wouldn't call this 1960 picture one of Billy Wilder's best comedies -- it's drab, sappy, and overlong at 125 minutes. Full Review |
||
|
3.5/4 |
Billy Wilder further enhances his filmic resume with this tender portrayal of a lonely man who may soon get what he deserves. Jack Lemmon is terrific. Full Review |
||
|
5/5 |
No review available.
|
||
|
3/4 |
The first comedy to win the Oscar since 1944's Going My Way, the Apartment, the serio-comedy about "little people" in N.Y.C. (Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine) is not vintage Billy Wilder, but it's well-acted. Full Review |
||
|
4/4 |
Humanism and cleverness age like fine wine, even if served with spaghetti strained with a tennis racket. Full Review |
||
|
5/5 |
It’s one of the most heartbreaking films I’ve ever seen. Full Review |
CommentLatest News for The Apartment
June 22, 2007:
AFI Announces Top 100 Movies of All Time ... Again
Ten years ago the AFI gave us a list of the Top 100 American Films Ever Made -- and when that was done they churned out 15 other lists every few years. And then last night they... More...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Fresh Links
Featured
Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.
Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.
IGN RSS Feeds