It's been nearly a year
since we lost Robin Williams to a long-standing bout of depression that
eventually led to his suicide. This led to an enormous outcry of grief
all over the celebrity and social media world from those who had grown
up on his movies, television and standup and caused many to reflect on
this talent that we had perhaps taken for granted. No one can deny that
his movies weren't always diamonds, but his work in them was almost
always admirable and memorable. The fact that he spent the last couple
of years of his life giving great performances in terrible little-seen
direct to VOD films ("The Angriest Man In Brooklyn", "A Merry Friggin'
Christmas"), with the occasional cameo in something truly awful ("The
Big Wedding"), is a rather tragic thought. But fortunately, with Dito
Montiel's newly released film Boulevard, Williams goes out strong, if
not quite on top.
Williams plays Nolan, a man who's stuck in your
typical indie-film marriage, i.e. loveless. He's friendly and cordial
with his wife, but is clearly missing something vital. One night he's
driving home and spots a group of gay hookers on the sidewalk and after
nearly accidentally running one over, he befriends him and starts to
confront his closeted homosexuality.
He gets advice from his
friend Winston, played by Bob Odenkirk, who brings all the levity and
spontaneity that you'd hope for from the guy who plays Saul Goodman in a
role that could have felt a tad superfluous. He's clearly only in the
movie to give Nolan a person off which to bounce his thoughts, but with
an actor like Odenkirk in the role, it's hard to complain about such
matters.
If you feel like you've seen this film before, you
probably have. We've seen this suburbia set-up many times over the last
couple of decades, so when a film goes for this, you really have to
count on strong performances and interesting surprises to make it worth
your while. Thanks to Williams' tender, vulnerable, aching performance,
the film always stays on the side of watchable, and often fascinating.
An electronic synthesizer score often tends to call too much attention
to itself and distract from the fine performances by not just Williams,
but also Roberto Aguire as Leo, the young man whom Nolan befriends.
Fortunately though, once the film firmly establishes what it's about,
such distracting little director quirks either ceased altogether, or
just stopped bothering me.
Certainly for someone like me, a huge
fan of his work, it's impossible to watch Williams play such a sad,
morose character and not be reminded of what happened shortly after this
film was finished. It's just unavoidable. But thankfully, that would
just be me reading too much into the story. The man was an actor, and an
excellent one at that. Remove all of the comedies from his resume, and
you're still left with one of the most impressive collections of
dramatic performances in recent memory. This film is no exception. Every
time he smiles to avoid confronting the pain and confusion that Nolan
feels so strongly, we don't question him in the slightest bit. When we
see him look at Leo with his expression of sorrow and pity, it's
impossible not to feel right there with him.
It may not be best
film of Williams' career, and it's a real shame that he never
experienced the ultra renaissance that I'm sure was on the horizon for
him, but as a film for an actor of this stature to go out on, he could
have done much worse than "Boulevard".
