By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Barry Levinson
Country: italy, united_states
Year: 2015
Running time: 112
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568343/combined
Kyle says: “THE HUMBLING has impeccable credentials: It is based upon a 2009 novel by Philip Roth, it is co-scripted by Buck Henry, it is directed by Barry Levinson, and it stars Al Pacino as a once-upon-a-time famous actor who takes a header during a terrible Off-Broadway production, goes into rehabilitation, conducts analysis by Skype, and meets various eccentric people from his past, most played by very good actors who seem left to fend for themselves in the absence of a strong guiding hand or clear
vision.
“The film will remind some watchers of BIRDMAN OR THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE, will encourage some fans of Pacino that at least this is not a role where he repeats or shouts every other line of dialogue, will interest some Greta Gerwig enthusiasts that the character she plays is sleeping with both Pacino and her partner Kyra Sedgwick, and may intrigue fans of model trains that Pacino and Gerwig set up tracks and send a model train all through the house.
“After Pacino accidentally runs over the cat belonging to Gerwig’s parents Dianne Wiest and Dan Hedaya, they rush to the local veterinarian; Gerwig reports to Pacino that her mother repeatedly called Pacino ‘feeble’ and ‘a shell of a man’. Borrowing her words seems an appropriate way to characterize THE HUMBLING: feeble, and a shell of a movie. To which one might add dreary, and a waste of time. 3 cats
“Seen Thursday, August 27, 2015, on Netflix, New York”
Thom says: “I gave this film the exact same rating that you. A step above mediocre.”