Way back when, the director Ted Kotcheff made a couple of really fine, somewhat low-key movies based on Mordecai Richler novels. The first, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974), kind of launched Richard Dreyfus' career as a leading man, while the second, Joshua Now and Then (1985), was a showpiece for a young James Woods. Both were by turns funny and dramatic, and more or less followed the efforts of a young Jewish man trying to overcome prejudice and familial handicaps to get ahead in the world. Though it's been awhile since I last saw either film, I have strong memories of being totally charmed by both and would welcome the opportunity to see either again if the opportunity arises. In the meantime, a third film based on a Richler novel, also following the professional and personal striving of a Jewish man in Montreal, and also starring a fine actor who straddles the line between character actor and leading man (Paul Giamatti as Barney), has come out and I went to see it expecting something akin to the other two films. Alas, it didn't quite measure up to its predecessors. Giamatti, and for that matter the rest of the cast (especially Dustin Hoffman as his ex-cop dad), is fine, but the story seems just a little too big to be fully developed in just a couple of hours of screen time. The result is some really good vignettes that fall a bit short of adding up to a wholly satisfying experience. Especially tough is figuring out why the love of Barney's life is won over by his overbearing attempts at courtship, which kind of undermines the core element of the plot (at least to me). While the two other Richler-based movies mentioned had a kind of bittersweet quality to them, this one is downright tragic, but it's a tragedy that seems tacked on to the story without feeling like it has been earned (not the best word-- what I mean is that while Barney is certainly a flawed character, his downfall hardly seems the result of those flaws). So overall, there's much to like about the movie, but in the end it's a bit of a disappointment.
Monday, March 14, 2011
A Movie I Saw
Way back when, the director Ted Kotcheff made a couple of really fine, somewhat low-key movies based on Mordecai Richler novels. The first, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974), kind of launched Richard Dreyfus' career as a leading man, while the second, Joshua Now and Then (1985), was a showpiece for a young James Woods. Both were by turns funny and dramatic, and more or less followed the efforts of a young Jewish man trying to overcome prejudice and familial handicaps to get ahead in the world. Though it's been awhile since I last saw either film, I have strong memories of being totally charmed by both and would welcome the opportunity to see either again if the opportunity arises. In the meantime, a third film based on a Richler novel, also following the professional and personal striving of a Jewish man in Montreal, and also starring a fine actor who straddles the line between character actor and leading man (Paul Giamatti as Barney), has come out and I went to see it expecting something akin to the other two films. Alas, it didn't quite measure up to its predecessors. Giamatti, and for that matter the rest of the cast (especially Dustin Hoffman as his ex-cop dad), is fine, but the story seems just a little too big to be fully developed in just a couple of hours of screen time. The result is some really good vignettes that fall a bit short of adding up to a wholly satisfying experience. Especially tough is figuring out why the love of Barney's life is won over by his overbearing attempts at courtship, which kind of undermines the core element of the plot (at least to me). While the two other Richler-based movies mentioned had a kind of bittersweet quality to them, this one is downright tragic, but it's a tragedy that seems tacked on to the story without feeling like it has been earned (not the best word-- what I mean is that while Barney is certainly a flawed character, his downfall hardly seems the result of those flaws). So overall, there's much to like about the movie, but in the end it's a bit of a disappointment.
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