“The Humbling”, directed by Barry Levinson and adapted from
the 2009 novel by Philip Roth, with Al Pacino as the aging actor protagonist,
ought to have been a major indie player in the Christmas season. But the film is a bit tedious and rather
wastes its anamorphic wide screen space, so it seems most consumers are just
seeing it on Instant Play.
There’s always an issue when writing about an “over the hill”
anti-hero. Do you show his life from his
viewpoint, or (perhaps more interesting, though not done here), through the
eyes of younger adults (or even teens) around him? How do you bring in the backstories of the
other characters? In real life, that’s
usually complicated, and in the movie business that’s one reason we get “prequels”.
The novel, while short at 140 pages, is rather intricate,
and in three parts. The 112 minutes of
the film seem to gloss over the serious problems in some of the other
characters’ lives, somewhat focusing too much on Simon Axler’s self-pity and
vulnerability.
One interesting concept of the film, though, is its
layering. Some of the thespian’s issues
will be played out in his roles as he
returns to the stage.
As the movie opens, Simon is quoting Shakespeare’s “As You
Like It”, the passage about “all the world’s a stage”. Indeed, fiction and fact will mix for
him. He seems to be banned from entering
a theater, after a previous meltdown at the Kennedy Center. But somehow he gets
another chance, and dives off the stage, and winds up in a psych ward. (That
scene might make an accidental connection to “Birdman”, a much snazzier film
(Nov. 5).
He spends a month in rehab, and meets a woman who describes
a horror story of how she discovered her husband’s abusing her daughter. Simon courts legal trouble (as an accessory)
by allowing discussions as to how she could hire a hit to get rid of her
husband. By now, we’re in material that
might belong in a Robert Altman movie, but not handled as well. In time, Simon is back home (is that Scarsdale?
– suspect it was shot in Toronto) and in a relationship with a “former” lesbian
Pegeen (Greta Gerwig), whose recent African-American lover is now transgender
to male. Pegeen’s parents, at one point,
tell Simon to “stay away” from their daughter.
You hear that in soap operas, but you hope most seniors recognize where
they are not welcome in time.
Simon will eventually return to the stage. Apparently the play is supposed to be Eugene O’Neill’s “A Long
Day’s Journey Into Night”. That was
itself a film in 1962, and not on DVD, but I seem to recall a video of some of
it in a lesson plan for an AP English class when I worked as a substitute
teacher a few years back. Maybe this new
film would show up as viewing in a college drama class. The climax of the film concerns what Simon
may do to himself when acting the part in the play at the end. It sounds like he is quoting Shakespeare
again. Actually, I recall a line where Simon says he wants to do "King Lear" (which we all read and took quizzes on in English as seniors in high school -- and I remember all the intra-family jealousies). Maybe that was the setting at the end.
The official site is here.(Millennium films). The film can be rented legally on YouTube for $6.99, same
price on Amazon. A little cheaper than a
theater ticket. Nice to have a big home
screen.
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