Walter Matthau and Carol Burnett both portray characters who feel themselves unworthy, at least unworthy of love. The characters are very real, nuanced, and fully realized; I've known people like these! This is a movie that doesn't talk down to its audience, or the characters to each other. They're both intelligent and perceptive. For most of the movie they are willing to live with each other's weaknesses not out of deep love, but out of an awareness that they most likely can't do better. That this changes is one of the riches of the movie, but also one of the weaknesses - the ending seems a bit too nice to be true. But that's Hollywood. I enjoyed the movie.
Review of Pete 'n' Tillie
