BEFORE: It's season finale time on TV, which means it's also cancellation time for a number of shows. I'm torn because I want the shows I like to continue, but I'd also like to have some more time in my schedule. Right now I'm running only about a month and a half behind on most shows, which for me is pretty good, except for "The Amazing Race", which is the only show I tend to binge-watch in the days leading up to the finale. I have to time this just right, because if I start too soon, watching two episodes a night gets me to the end too quickly, but if I wait too long to start, the finale will air and I could easily see the identity of the winners posted on Twitter or when they're interviewed on a talk show. Three episodes on Tuesday, three more tonight and I'm already halfway done.
Still in Robin Williams week, and I suppose this is the sort of tone you set when you start the month with a film like "The Skeleton Twins", plus pay tribute to an actor who committed suicide last year. It's still fresh, and it's bringing the whole demeanor down here at the Movie Year, but things have got to perk up eventually, right?
THE PLOT: In 1944 Poland, a Jewish shopkeeper named Jakob overhears a German radio broadcast about Russian troop movements and shares his information to spread hope throughout the ghetto.
AFTER: Look, I can't always explain why one film is a hit and another one isn't, even if they appear to be very similar in their make-up. Hollywood latches on to themes and repeats things over and over (that isn't to say that they shouldn't, I merely point out that they do) and if something sells or seems important, you're bound to see more of it. I mean, "Schindler's List" won Best Picture of 1993, and when Oscar season rolls around, you're usually considered a fool if you bet against a performance where someone plays handicapped or diseased, or if you bet against a Holocaust film, especially if it's a documentary.
So why did Roberto Benigni's performance in "Life Is Beautiful" win him a Best Actor Oscar, but Robin Williams' performance in "Jakob the Liar" get him nominated for Golden Raspberry? (That's not good, by the way...) Was it just because Benigni's film was released two years earlier, making Williams seem like a copycat? Were people not willing to view funny-man Robin Williams in a serious role? He'd done serious stuff before, even winning an Oscar himself for "Good Will Hunting". So what gives?
(For that matter, there's that notable Jerry Lewis film "The Day the Clown Cried", about a circus clown that gets imprisoned in a concentration camp, and it stirred up so much controversy, and is reportedly so awful that it will never be released. All of these films get made with the best of intentions - let's assume - but at some point it becomes a question of tone, and audiences often feel that if a film is trying too hard to be relevant, it can easily be labelled as heavy-handed.)
It's one of those unanswerable questions, like asking, "How can a man be so funny and perky on stage or in film, and then be so withdrawn and depressed at home?" Or "How can an actor be in a film that's all about finding hope when all hope is lost, and then be unable to find it himself?" I don't mean to dump on Robin Williams, I really don't, but watching his films over the last few nights has really driven home the point that I just don't understand what was going on inside his head. There's a new documentary out about comedians that Kevin Pollak has been promoting, called "Misery Loves Comedy", and it's all about how some of the funniest comedians also have some of the most miserable personal lives, and perhaps I should be checking that out to find answers to my lingering questions.
And here's where my rating system fails, because in the end it just represents how much I enjoyed a film, rather than how important a film might be, and I don't think this is a film that's meant to be enjoyed. Can I just call a mulligan tonight and be done with it?
Also starring Liev Schreiber (last seen in "The Butler"), Bob Balaban (last seen in "Girl Most Likely"), Alan Arkin (last seen in "Wait Until Dark"), Armin Mueller-Stahl (last seen in "The X-Files"), Hannah Taylor Gordon, Mark Margolis (last seen in "Immortals"), Michael Jeter (last seen in "Open Range"), Nina Siemaszko.
RATING: 4 out of 10 bags of cement
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