Pacino puts in a measured performance as an ageing muso reassessing his life, writes Theresa Smith
DANNY COLLINS
DIRECTOR: Dan Fogelman
CAST: Al Pacino, Annette Bening, Jennifer Garner, Christopher Plummer, Bobby Cannavale,
CLASSIFICATION: 13 LD
RUNNING TIME: 105 minutes
RATING: ***
AL PACINO puts a bit more effort into this lead role than he has for a while, playing ageing rocker, Danny Collins, who decides to change the track he is on.
According to the film’s tagline, Collins wrote the songs the world loved, but not the songs he wanted to write. When his agent tracks down a letter that John Lennon wrote to him at the beginning of his career, Collins starts to question everything he has done as a musician.
This is the part of the film that is based on a true story – Lennon writing to a young musician who, in a magazine interview, questions whether being rich and famous changes the way you think and therefore corrupts your art. Lennon said he didn’t think it did, and invited the artist to contact him so they could discuss the idea.
So, when filmic Collins gets the letter 40 years later, he decides to backtrack and investigate emotional avenues he hadn’t pursued back then – like getting to know his estranged, now grown-up son. Relocating to New Jersey, he becomes familiar with the staff at the Hilton Hotel and tries to change his hard- living ways.
The big question, though, is whether he is the one who has sold out, or whether he has given in to circumstances.
“Stay true to your music. Stay true to yourself. The rest will follow,” says the letter that Collins keeps on hauling out and once he dries out he turns out to be bit of a scallywag, but a sweet one nonetheless. He has become so used to the idea of being larger than life, that he struggles to empathise with every-day, normal. Or, at least this is Pacino in contained rogue mode, rather than over-the-top a-hole.
The repartee between Annette Bening’s hotel manager and Pacino’s Collins flows well and they come across as starting a genuine rapport. The rest of the ensemble cast are also solid – Bobby Cannavale does repressed anger well as estranged son Tom Donnelly, Jennifer Garner is solid as his pragmatic wife, Samantha and Christopher Plummer is cool and collected as Collins’ agent and best friend.
Director Dan Fogelman (who up until this point was more well-known as a writer of scripts for Cars, Bolt and The Guilt Trip, among others) dials down the schmaltz, giving us some emotional moments to empathise with, but as his background suggests, this is going to be family-friendly fare, he is not going to go for the jugular.
He can’t quite just let the story tell itself though, throwing out helpful hints like the poignant Lennon soundtrack which plays up the nostalgia and feeds into the baby boomer wish fulfilment that it is never too late to go back and start over.
Still, there are some surprisingly emotionally resonant moments and it is a treat to see Pacino play down the method acting and just simply be a character.
If you liked The Humbling, you will like this.