In this time of social distancing, things like movies become even more important. Not nearly so important as staying healthy, providing for our families and helping to prevent the spread of that nasty virus going around, but it does play a role. Luckily, I love movies. I'm betting if you read this, you do, too.
This morning, I quite innocently came across this movie. After finishing it, I felt like it was very much on purpose that I saw it. I had been looking for movies and not wanting to pay for them, so Amazon Prime to the rescue. The movie stars Al Pacino, which is usually a good bet, though as he ages, maybe not as much a sure thing as in the past.
Also starring are Annette Bening, whom I can't think has been given very many bad performances in her career, and Christopher Plummer, a long-time standout. Jennifer Garner does her usual solid job in a supporting role. I pretty much watch anything with her in it. Rounding out the main cast are Bobby Cannavale, with whom I wasn't familiar, and Giselle Eisenberg, a young actor who more or less steals the show in the early going.
Despite such a well-known cast, I didn't expect very much of the movie. It was to be a way to pass the time and procrastinate against possibly more important things like chores and exercise. It turned out to be a very good story, and I'm glad I saw it. And the stories' parallel, at one point, to a song I recently wrote about on my other blog, was just kinda uncanny.
Danny Collins is about an aging rock-star who decides to try to change his life after his close friend and manager Frank (as played by Plummer), gives him a present for his birthday. The gift is a framed letter that John Lennon wrote to Danny in 1971 that he'd never seen because of the greed of his record company at the time. The ne'er-do-wells intended to cash in on Collins' success in the future, and only serendipity has revealed the letter to its intended recipient 40 years later.
It turns out this is based on a true story about a singer-songwriter named Steve Tilston. John Lennon really did write him a letter and it really did not get to Tilston until many years later. The similarities end there, however, but that doesn't make for a bad movie. The truth is that Tilston never became famous and lead a very normal and, so far as I can tell, good life. Whether his full true story was movie-worthy, I can't say.
This movie is really about second chances. And forgiveness. A father and a son. Danny realizes that, had he seen the letter when he was very young and impressionable, the stereotypical rock star life that left him empty inside might have been averted. To me, it's a stretch to think that he'd have lived clean and sober upon reading Lennon's words, but he might have.
I'm not going to give away too much of the story for those who haven't seen the movie. If you are a sappy sort like me, you'll enjoy it, I think. It's not so sappy as to be too much and campy, though I must state that Pacino sings a little in it, and that's the only real stretch, in my opinion. Pacino can be very over-the-top in his characterizations, but I felt he kept it in check this time around.
Alluding back to what I mentioned about my other blog, the thing I found ironic given the timing, is Collins' "Garden Party" moment. He writes new songs and wants to perform them, in part to gain approval from Bening's character Mary, but also to show himself and his family that he's not just some old star riding on his life of excess anymore. He even sets up a gig to do just this, but much like Rick Nelson in the early '70s, he succumbs to the crowd wanting him to play "the old songs". All those who were there to wish him well wound up very disappointed.
I was bummed by that part, but in the end, it's not the important thing. It's his relationship with his family. His son that he has been estranged from (played by Cannavale), daughter-in-law (played by Garner) and grand-daughter (played by the adorable Eisenberg) come to see that he has a good heart, even though he is far from perfect and has a style all his own.
I won't bother to rate the movie, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. I think it's worth checking out when procrastinating about things like chores and exercise. Thanks for reading.
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