BEFORE: Paul Newman carries over, and sometimes I don't have to try very hard to find the links - this film popped up on premium cable again a month or two ago, and since I knew I had a couple of Paul Newman films coming up, it feels like it suggested itself for the list, and it knew right where to go. Whether the film was correct about its own placement remains to be seen.
THE PLOT: While a ne'er-do-well approaching retirement age is pressing a worker's compensation suit for a bad knee, he secretly works for his nemesis, Carl, and flirts with Carl's young wife Toby. His long- forgotten son and family have moved back to town, so he faces unfamiliar family responsibilities.
AFTER: Well, this wasn't seasonally appropriate at all, as the film is set between Thanksgiving and Christmas in a town in upstate New York. Jeez, I just passed on "8 Crazy Nights" last week, because we're nowhere near Hanukkah. But thematically, maybe I'm on to something and I did watch this one at the right time - because again tonight we've got a father re-connecting with his adult son, and finding out that he's now a grandfather, and that sounds a lot like what happened to De Niro's character in "Grudge Match" last week.
Other than that, this film doesn't seem to be ABOUT much of anything - it's small-town life, after all. People do odd construction jobs, they take care of small repairs, they play poker, they clear away snow. Then, on Tuesdays....sorry, I seem to have dozed off for a second there, you really can't blame me. Admittedly, when I was in my teens or twenties, this would have seemed like the most boring film of all time. But I'm now 47 and I'm feeling every year of it, so maybe there's a little more appreciation for the things middle-age people do to pass the time.
I have a few days to myself each week these days, and what do I do with that time? Organize the comic book collection, go out to a café for lunch, try to make a dent in the stack of crosswords from the Sunday paper, debate whether my movie watchlist needs to be re-ordered. So I can't claim that my days off are very exciting, but then, I'm not trying turn them into a movie, now, am I? So I guess I'm a bit stuck in the middle - I can understand where this film is coming from, but I can't really justify it as a narrative.
I need more of a narrative than what constitutes someone else's day-to-day, because I don't think a film should seem as pointless as a life that seems to be going nowhere. Or is that really the point, in the end? I can't say as I know. Maybe it is the little victories we get that make us content, that make life worth living, and maybe we need to stop and recognize them when we can, even if the little wins never add up to a big win.
But I think I'm ready to be a cranky old person myself. I've been on a couple of cruises - where my wife and I felt like we were the youngest couple on the ship, but I think it was good practice for later. On a cruise ship you learn that being old is about going to buffet restaurants for lunch, and then dressing up for dinner, and letting people from other countries show you the sights and make you drinks - because if you've been working hard for a few decades, you've earned it. Middle age is also about spoiling your nieces and nephews, looking in on relatives who are even older than yourself, and realizing you're in too much pain to do physical labor anymore. Check, check, and check. We even went out and played bingo a couple months ago, so damn it, I'm ready. All I need now is to get me some Lipitor and to start complaining about how nothing in this city - the sports teams, the bars, anything to do with the government - is as good as it was thirty years ago. Bring it on.
Also starring Bruce Willis (last seen in "Four Rooms"), Melanie Griffith (last seen in "Pacific Heights"), Jessica Tandy (last seen in "The Birds"), Dylan Walsh (last seen in "Congo"), Pruitt Taylor Vince (last seen in "Monster"), Josef Sommer, Philip Seymour Hoffman (last seen in "Patch Adams"), Philip Bosco (last seen in "My Best Friend's Wedding"), Catherine Dent, Margo Martindale (last seen in "Practical Magic"), Alice Drummond (last seen in "Eyewitness").
RATING: 4 out of 10 traffic violations
No comments:
Post a Comment