Circle Of Life, Grace And Frankie Season Four Lives Up!

The Good: Very funny with some wonderful lines, Good character development, Some good plot moments, Direction
The Bad: Repetitive plot moments
The Basics: Grace And Frankie Season Four gets in some early laughs, turns to issues of mortality and marital strife, but manages to keep the characters impressively engaging.


There are very few shows I look forward to each time they arrive like Grace And Frankie. Grace And Frankie Season Four is here and it was a big thing for me to wait a full day to sit down and watch it. But, my wife and I wanted to make an event of the fourth season, but one of our friends wanted to come watch it with us. So, we waited the day and have now binged the entire fourth season of Grace And Frankie!

Picking up after the third season of Grace And Frankie (reviewed here!), it seemed like there would be a lot for most of the characters in the show to do. The titular characters were in business together, while Robert and Sol were both retired now and Bud was facing his weird girlfriend having a child. So, with Robert and Sol arrested in the prior season's finale and Frankie facing the high potential of another stroke, the fourth season of Grace And Frankie began at an interestingly disparate point.

Grace is now working with Sheree and Frankie has moved to Santa Fe with Jacob. It has been months since they have seen one another and Frankie soon comes to visit for Bud's impending child's gender reveal party. Robert and Sol continue to be arrested for protests all around the area. Brianna and Barry are back together, with Barry now interviewing for one of Brianna's competitors. As Frankie and Brianna discover a dark truth about Sheree, the family participates in a scavenger hint to discover the gender of Bud and Allison's baby.

After admitting she is miserable in Santa Fe, Frankie leaves Jacob to move back in with Grace. Grace, Frankie, and Sheree move in together and the ladies enlist Robert and Sol to help Sheree get her house back from her spiteful stepchildren. Grace and Frankie break into Sheree's house to get a letter to help Sheree win her case. While Robert and Sol start to feel tension over Robert's acting and Sol's attempts to make new friends, Grace tries to negotiate her relationship with Nick. Frankie tries to reach out to her estranged sister after experiencing flashbacks and Robert reminds her of a past incident. As Robert and Sol's relationship leads them to greater estrangement, Grace and Robert find themselves going to a funeral together and Frankie and Sol try to get Frankie arrested to get her legally back alive! And as the season moves toward its climax, a water stain on the ceiling at Grace and Frankie's chateau leads to a series of events that has the potential to forever change their lives!

Grace And Frankie Season Four is very funny, with Brianna getting many of the season's funniest lines. The show manages to be funny and smart while exploring many serious topics, like death, aging and estrangement. The characters manage to grow and develop, for the most part, while still maintaining their core characteristics. So, Frankie and Sol are still fairly ludicrous, while Grace and Robert are generally serious. There are changes - Frankie's long-lost sister makes an appearance and Grace has to go into a knee-replacement surgery sober - and constants; Mallory is still largely defined as being a mother and Coyote remains relegated to a support character without any major arcs in the season.

On the plot front, the characters keep doing their thing - Grace and Frankie remain in business together, Brianna is running Say Grace, and the season's big events surround Allison being pregnant with Bud's child. Frankie's hallucination arc seems instantly reminiscent of Robert's hallucinations in Season Four. The season has a little inconsistency with Grace's character - she is fun and wacky with Sheree, but when Frankie reappears in her life, her personality reverts entirely to her previously-established traits. In a similar way, Mallory raises an impressive thematic point with Coyote, but the conversation is cut short and never returned to in a very unsatisfying way.

The key Grace And Frankie characters in the fourth season are:

Grace - She has allowed her nail technician of twenty years, Sheree, to move into the house she and Frankie shared. Dating Nick since Frankie left for Santa Fe, she starts getting in trouble with Frankie almost immediately. Her knee is very hurt during their breaking and entering, right after which Nick starts wanting to meet her family. Grace actually commits to Nick after a funeral where she learns Phil Millstein has died. She has to get sober for a knee-replacement surgery and outs Sol for calling Frankie his soulmate,

Robert - After getting arrested repeatedly with Sol and spending more time in a cell, with a full bladder, he decides to give up the acts of civil disobedience. He is nominated for a Tappy award for his performance in in 1776 and forgets to thank Sol in his acceptance speech. He gets Sol tickets to a folk music cruise, in an effort to spend time with him, but is offered a bigger part in the play he is assistant directing. He makes a mess out of the friendship Sol tries to build with the neighbors and ends up in counseling with Sol,

Frankie - Figuring out quickly how much her energetic disposition is bothering Jacob and instantly disappointed by how Grace has transformed into a fun person with Sheree. She goes over the top with Allison while Allison is pregnant with her first grandchild. She discovers that an offhanded remark at the Post Office has led to her being declared legally dead. She begins hallucinating when she is reminded that someone told her Sol was gay right before her wedding. When her granddaughter is born, she latches onto her, at the expense of her relationship with Jacob,

Sol - Despite being down on Robert for being politically active to the extent that he is, he protests on his own and hurts his back doing it. After being overlooked at the Tappies, he reaches out to the new neighbors for friendship, much to Robert's chagrin. After going on the cruise alone, he continues his activism with Frankie, which pulls him away from Robert,

Brianna - She tries to get along with Barry now that he has moved back in and she is weirdly suspicious of him. As Barry is left at home to take care of her dog, Spit, she spies upon him and freaks out about the nature of their relationship. She reluctantly allows Mallory to come to the office to act as an intern,

Mallory - Separated now from Mitch, she and Coyote get closer. She eagerly goes to meet Nick when Grace finally is willing to introduce him to her daughters. She is very bitter about her divorce and marriage in general. She helps Grace out after her knee surgery and stands in for Frankie when Allison goes into labor,

Coyote - Waiting for his girlfriend to be sober for one year, he starts as fairly miserable in the relationship, but otherwise happy. He finds himself unable to tell his father about his loathing of soft cheeses. He waits out his girlfriend's sobriety, but gets a lot of help from Mallory on how to treat her better,

and Bud - Still dating Allison, they are having a baby together, but have no plans for marriage. He proposes to Allison and is surprised when that leads her to reveal she won't marry him without a prenup. He finds he is exhausted as a new parent, but wants very much to work with Allison to raise their daughter together.

The character mix continues to be interesting, but the relationship between Sol and Robert ends at an unfortunate place where the characters are in danger of falling into the predictable, overdone trope of the aging gay characters who end up in a situation where they could have a threesome and don't have the character to say "this isn't us." That kind of hapless idiocy does not fit the characters and if Season Five begins there, it will be unfortunate.

The performances in Grace And Frankie Season Four are homogeneously solid. All of the main cast knows their roles and they have them mastered. June Diane Raphael continues to be one of the all-time greats at delivering sarcastic lines flawlessly and Martin Sheen gets to play exhausted in some new and interesting ways. The scenes between Lily Tomlin and Talia Shire have surprisingly strong on-screen chemistry and a sense of realism to them. Lisa Kudrow plays Sheree much like she played Phoebe on Friends, but Peter Gallagher makes a pretty poignant new character as Nick.

Ultimately, the fourth season of Grace And Frankie keeps all the important quality levels high while still being an amazing mix of humor and heart!

For other works from the 2017 - 2018 television season, please check out my reviews of:
"The Last Day" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"The Trial Of The Flash" - The Flash
"Legion Of The Super-Heroes" - Supergirl
"The Wolf Inside" - Star Trek: Discovery
"Twice Upon A Time" - Doctor Who
The Orville - Season 1
The Punisher - Season 1
Inhumans - Season 1
Stranger Things - Season 2
Rick And Morty - Season 3
"Beebo The God Of War" - Legends Of Tomorrow
"Crisis On Earth-X, Part 2" - Arrow
Twin Peaks - Season 3 ("The Return")
Game Of Thrones - Season 7
The Defenders - Season 1
Friends From College - Season 1

8.5/10

For other television reviews, please check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2018 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Return Of Beloved Friends (And Humor): Grace And Frankie Season Three

The Good: Very funny, Great performances, Wonderful character development
The Bad: Moments of forced conflict
The Basics: In the third season of Grace And Frankie, the humor comes back to the forefront with clever, amusing, heartfelt episodes that make all the characters shine!


There are few Netflix television shows I look forward to the way I look forward to new episodes of Grace And Frankie. Today is the day we get new episodes of Grace And Frankie as the third season premieres on Netflix. Grace And Frankie Season Three does what many of the best television shows do, which is to smooth out some of the rough spots from earlier seasons and hit a stride in the third season. Grace And Frankie is far less tortured than season 2 (reviewed here!) and it is well-beyond the initial character conflicts and the work of establishing the key characters which is what Grace And Frankie Season 1 (reviewed here!) had to do.

Grace And Frankie Season 3 does an excellent job of building all of the key characters, while remembering to bring the humor. The thirteen-episode third season of Grace And Frankie is funny, mature and socially-relevant.

A month after Babe's cremation and the execution of her will, Frankie is cramming to fill her gallery space, much to the chagrin of Grace, who is doing most of the work for their nascent business . . . and cleaning up their shared house. While Robert and Sol move into their new place, while Sol is obsessed with reconciling with Frankie, the tension in the family is still fairly high. Brianna reaches out to Frankie, while Sol crashes the gallery opening by trying a grand, sweet gesture with Frankie. As the family tensions even out, Grace and Frankie focus together on trying to get financing for their business of making vibrators for older women. Grace continues to be frustrated with Frankie over her friend's inability to stay focused, as Frankie continues to try to pitch easy-access condoms for senior citizens during their business meetings.

When Grace and Frankie's business get's an angel investor through Frankie, the pair is able to manufacture their prototypes and starts the tough job of figuring out how to get focus group data from a surprisingly reticent demographic. While Brianna and Mallory have a conflict with one another over Mallory's children and Brianna's reactions to them, Robert and Sol have issues with their work, retirement, and Robert getting cast for a big part in a local theater production. As Bud takes a bigger role at the law firm by dating a woman everyone else hates, Grace and Frankie struggle with balancing their business and romantic relationships with their living together in the face of things like a break-in, Grace owning a gun, and Frankie's pot getting smoked up without her!

Grace And Frankie continues to both expand the characters from the first two seasons, who have now become beloved to anyone who watches the show, while adding more adult conflict with his less morose than the second season. The third season has some very funny lines and the usual hilarious performances. Grace And Frankie Season Three manages to utilize almost all of the cast in impressive ways with greater balance than the prior seasons. In fact, only Ethan Embry's Coyote seems to have less of a role than in prior seasons, though Brooklyn Decker's Mallory seems to have more of a substantive part in the third season of Grace And Frankie.

The key Grace And Frankie continue to be the same in the third season. Here is where the third season finds them:

Grace - Committed to the business with Frankie, she is frustrated by Frankie's lack of focus. She has to adapt to having Jacob around more (as Frankie's relationship with him continues to deepen). She is upset by how cruel the finance market is to her and Frankie based upon their age. Despite that, she works hard to get the pair financing, takes risks with her friends to get market data and continues to make amends for her prior cruelty while drunk. She is miffed by how many of the people in her life seem to prefer Frankie over her and she reaches out to have a better relationship with her daughters,

Robert - He is initially frustrated by Sol's obsession with smoothing things over with Frankie at the expense of the happiness he feels with moving into their new, shared, house. Tired of how unhappy and mundane working as a divorce lawyer has become, he is eager to retire finally to enjoy life. He is cast in a local production of 1776, while Sol is not. He is tortured by visions of his mother after he finally comes out to her and deals with her wrath, but he is able to turn to Sol,

Frankie - As she and Jacob become closer, she finds herself less excited about focusing on her work with Grace. She has an amazing gallery opening, despite Sol's grand romantic gesture flopping, and she bonds with Brianna. When the house she shares with Grace is broken into, she becomes terrified . . . as much of the criminal as by Grace and her marksmanship! She remains fearless in exploring her emotions and she finds new ways to be supportive to Grace, whom everyone now acknowledges as her best friend,

Sol - Feeling guilty over lying decades prior to Frankie about the quality of her artwork and a sale that never actually occurred, he tanks showing off his new house with Robert with his fretting. He works to reconcile with Frankie, while he and Robert adapt to living together in a new home, where they don't have to listen to each other's music. He wants to be in a play with Robert and he helps Robert overcome his mother-centered issues,

Brianna - Frustrated with Mallory and her many children and how that has strained their relationship, she finds herself having to work actively on her relationship with her sister. Desperate to reconcile with her mother figure, Frankie, she comes through with the business loan needed to fund Grace and Frankie's vibrator business, with the caveat that Grace not find out where the money came from. When her relationship with Barry falls apart because she is not forward-seeing, she starts going through relationships, including meeting a male prostitute,

Mallory - Following the birth of her twins, she is overwhelmed. Her husband seems entirely ill-equipped to deal with having so many children and she is frustrated by how having more children has strained her relationship with Brianna. She tries to relax and be supportive of Grace after the robbery and is pretty psyched to have time away from the kids just to get high,

Coyote - Relegated to a supporting role this season, he leaps to Frankie's support when their home is broken into,

and Bud - Now dating a woman who has a slew of allergies, he becomes a bigger presence at the law firm as Robert steps back from the job.

On the acting front, the third season of Grace And Frankie is the point where it is impossible not to say, "Holy fuck, how can the big four not dominate every award's show?!" Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen, Jane Fonda, and Sam Waterston are all amazing actors and they each manage to have powerful and hilarious moments. They are all impressive, seasoned actors who have had long careers that have proven their talents, but in season three of Grace And Frankie, each one shows the viewer something new from their performance range. If Sheen, Fonda, Tomlin and Waterston are not nominated for acting awards for the third season of Grace And Frankie, the awards are just stupidly myopic.

The third season of Grace And Frankie also allows June Diane Raphael to break out as Brianna. Raphael has, historically, delivered some of the show's funniest, snarkiest, lines, but is has been hard for her to come out from the shadow of the four headliners. In Grace And Frankie Season Three, Raphael gives a more nuanced performance that shows off a far greater range than in prior seasons and other works she has been in. It is nice to see Raphael in a role where she can shine and show off more than one aspect of her talent. If June Diane Raphael is not even nominated for a Best Supporting Actress award for her work in the third season of Grace And Frankie, there is no real reason to pay attention to Award's Season.

Ultimately, Grace And Frankie Season Three manages to be very funny while exploring issues of aging, female sexuality, the psychology of religious oppression, and the complications of actually maintaining and growing family relationships. Grace And Frankie Season Three finds the actors hitting an uncommon stride while making their characters some of the most wonderful and memorable in television history.

For other works from the 2016 – 2017 television season, please check out my reviews of:
Iron Fist - Season 1
Love - Season 2
Santa Clarita Diet - Season 1
A Series Of Unfortunate Events - Season 1
One Day At A Time - Season 1
Travelers - Season 1
"Happy Fuckin' New Year" - Sense8
The OA - Season 1
Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life
"Invasion!" - Arrow
"The Ghost" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"Duet" - The Flash
"The Fellowship Of The Spear" - Legends Of Tomorrow
"Star-Crossed" - Supergirl
Luke Cage - Season 1
Stranger Things - Season 1

8/10

For other television reviews, please check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Tread Toward Heartbreaking: Grace And Frankie Season Two Moves Fast To Drama!

The Good: Amazing performances, Great character development
The Bad: Most of the mood, Predictable plots
The Basics: Grace And Frankie Season Two starts funny, but quickly develops into a serious series of episodes filled with the main four characters tormented and moody.


I am a big fan of genre-bending works and I know I have not always been. When I first reviewed the Hem album Eveningland (reviewed here!), for example, I devoted way too much time to trying to place it within a genre to define it than I did appreciating what the album actually contained. Since then, though, my tastes have matured and I have come to appreciate a great work that is not bound by the conventions of a single genre. And yet . . .

. . . I have spent the past few months since the second season of Grace And Frankie was released belaboring how to review it. I was captivated pretty immediately by Grace And Frankie Season 1 (reviewed here!) and I was eagerly looking forward to the second season. But, when the first preview trailer for the second season of Grace And Frankie was released, I was unsettled to notice that Martin Sheen barely appeared in the trailer and I attentively observed that many of the characters in one scene wore hospital visitor badges. Given the character-shaking events of the first season finale of Grace And Frankie, I felt this did not necessarily bode well.

And, in many ways, it did not.

It is impossible to discuss the second season of Grace And Frankie without referencing where the first season ended. Because the second season picks up on the same day and is preoccupied with the ramifications of some of the events of the first season's finale, much of the second season of Grace And Frankie treads dramatic, as opposed to comedic. At the completion of the first season, my wife and I tried to guess where the second season would go and I made the comment at the time that the best possible direction Grace And Frankie Season Two could go would be having Sol and Frankie's indiscretion accepted and lovingly forgiven by Robert. That would have been different, would allow the show to continue to grow with all of its characters and be funny, and it would have made a lot of sense for the character of Robert (who, in the first season, revealed that he had been with other men than Sol, while the opposite was not true).

Alas, though, Grace And Frankie Season Two did not go in that direction. And, fortunately, the season did not go in the way that was immediately predictable from the trailer - that Sol told Robert he slept with Frankie and he had a heart attack. No, Grace And Frankie Season Two belabors honesty and consequences and, while the season opens with Lily Tomlin portraying Frankie with her delightful ridiculous comedic deliveries, the season quickly turns away from the humor and absurdity that made the first season so good.

Opening with Grace and Frankie leaving the beach after Frankie's surprising day where she hooked up with Sol, Sol returns home to find Robert unconscious. Robert had a heart attack and as Grace, Frankie, and the children converge upon Sol and Robert at the hospital, Sol freaks out about the new secret he has from Robert. Robert wants to be married before going under the knife and Sol objects to marrying him while the secret is between them. Convinced by Grace to go through with the wedding before telling Robert the truth, Frankie marries Sol and Robert.

The season takes a sharp turn away from the comedic by the end of the fourth episode, "The Road Trip." In that episode, the weight of Sol's secret begins to crush him and Grace has her first face to face encounter with Phil Milstein in years. Far from being a romantic reunion, Phil rejects Grace and Grace turns to her old "friends" for companionship. Frankie begins to have serious memory problems and Sol tells Robert the truth, which leads Robert to reject his husband. While Sol laments losing Robert, Grace is tormented by what a relationship with Phil might mean, Frankie stumbles in her relationship with Jacob and Coyote meets his birth mother.

The longer the second season of Grace And Frankie goes on, the less the episodes play toward humor. From the horrifying attempt Frankie makes to wake Say Grace up to the evils of palm oil to the agonizing decision Grace has to make in relation to Phil and his dementia-riddled wife, the stories become inherently dramatic. As Robert and Sol struggle to find themselves, Frankie has to help a friend in pain die. Even the season's climax with Grace's new business venture is approached with dramatic realism for the problem Grace wants to solve before it moves toward humor.

Despite the tension and torsion, Grace And Frankie remains well worth watching.

In the second season, the essential characters in Grace And Frankie are:

Grace - Taking control of the situation in the hospital, she begins hunting for a person who can marry Robert and Sol. She convinces Frankie to marry the guys. She quickly learns just how connected Robert and Sol are by visiting the house the men share together now. After stealing the vitamax from Robert and Sol, she tries to help out with Mallory's children and gets very jealous of Mallory's mother-in-law. She is goaded by Frankie into getting in contact with Phil Milstein, her old crush. She unsuccessfully mentors a brutish ex-soldier. After discovering her old socialite friends are not actually decent friends at all, she accepts Phil's friend request and discover he is open to a relationship with her . . . despite him still being married,

Robert - Having a heart attack, he insists on marrying Sol before going under the knife. He wakes up to find Coyote watching over him while Grace and Frankie get supplies from the house. He surprises everyone by showing enthusiasm for Drag Queen Bingo and finally being out and proud. He rejects Brianna's power-life chair and his stashes of things unhealthy for him are found by his family around the house. When Sol comes clean with him, he kicks Sol out of their house,

Frankie - Eager to redefine herself post-Sol, after having slept with him, she comes clean to the children in order to move along the healing process. She marries Robert and Sol and becomes a bit of a kleptomaniac while visiting their house in the aftermath. She approaches Jacob for yams again when Brianna wants to sell her yam-based lube. She hunts down Phil Milstein for Grace, while she tries to find her own best self. She loathes driving on the freeway, which she finds it impossible to merge onto. She declares herself an amature sluth to move forward Grace's relationship with Phil. She starts to develop real memory problems and gets high in order to pass her driving test. After accidentally snubbing Jacob, she gives a relationship with him a fair shot, despite him hunting a boar on his farmland. She bonds with Robert after she and Sol sleep with one another. As her business relationship with Brianna falls apart, she makes a difficult choice to help an old friend end her life with dignity,

Sol - Guilt-stricken over having slept with Frankie, he marries Robert without telling him. When he is hit with a massive bill for Robert's hospital stay, he organizes the patients who are being overcharged to threaten the hospital with legal action. When he reads the vows Robert wrote, his guilt overcomes him and he desperately tries to use his family as a buffer. Unable to live in with the secret, he comes clean and ends up estranged from Robert. After being kicked out by Robert, he ends up crashing on Grace and Frankie's porch for a night, before struggling on his own in a horrible apartment,

Brianna - About to go on a date when Robert has his heart attack, she uses her efficient manner to cancel the would-be guests at the now-cancelled wedding. She decides to try to sell Frankie's yam-based lube through her Say Grace company, but runs into difficulty with mass-producing it in a way that Frankie approves. She tries to take care of her father with a power lift chair, which he rejects. She reluctantly outs her relationship with her accountant Barry at work, though none of her subordinates are surprised. Appalled by how Frankie acts in their business venture, she fires her,

Mallory - Irked at being picked on for getting fat, she admits to everyone that she is pregnant now with twins. She turns to Grandma Jean (her husband's mother) for help with taking care of her children because she wants them to have fun and be taken care of. She confesses to Grace that Grace has never been the best mother, but the two begin to have an honest dialogue. Bedridden from her difficult pregnancy, she comes to believe her husband is cheating on her,

Coyote - In taking care of Robert during his recovery, he tries to make amends for all his past wrongs, from when he was high. He begins to worry about Frankie's memory. He learns about his birth mother and when she contacts him, the event is disastrous,

and Bud - He becomes Frankie's legal counsel during the negotiations for the yam lube. He bears the brunt of Robert and Sol's fall-out by picking up the slack they leave at work.

Jane Fonda's performance in the first episode of the second season of Grace And Frankie is more than enough to convince viewers that she has been robbed during awards season by not even being nominated for her acting. Her portrayal of Grace is the stuff of great drama and while Martin Sheen can act the hell out of a reaction without saying a word, Fonda takes an amazing leap into dramatic heavyhitting in the second season of Grace And Frankie. Fonda has amazing range for her facial expressions and perhaps the most amazing aspect of the second season of Grace And Frankie is that there is only one moment when she noticeably breaks.

Lily Tomlin is predictably brilliant as Frankie. Tomlin is hilarious and plays Frankie as delightfully goofy. Her acting chops are revealed, though, in her on-screen chemistry with Ernie Hudson. Frankie has incredible chemistry with Jacob and Tomlin and Hudson play it with an effortless quality. Tomlin's range is impressive; her dramatic scenes with Martin Sheen and Jane Fonda are subtle and powerful.

Sam Waterston is good as Sol, though he plays him with a goofy quality that he's had since the first episode and Brooklyn Decker is almost entirely neglected in the second season of Grace And Frankie. Baron Vaughn is underused in the second season of Grace And Frankie, though he does fine with what he is given. Similarly, Martin Sheen dominates the scenes he is in, but her does not have a ton of material in the second season. Ethan Embry and June Diane Raphael have the chance to illustrate that they are the credible successors to Tomlin, Fonda and Sheen in the second season of Grace And Frankie. Embry is given a big episode when Coyote meets his birth mother and when he plays off Sheen by trying to make amends, he makes Coyote an impressively deep character in a way he was not previously given the chance. Raphael is great and steps out of her first season shadow of Brianna simply being terse. Brianna becomes professional and a surprising natural successor to Fonda's Grace at Say Grace in the second season and the credibility of Brianna's arc is in no small part due to June Diane Raphael's performance.

Season two of Grace And Frankie is good, but there is the feeling of "bait and switch" not only between the first and second season, but within the second season itself. The initial goofiness of the second season is replaced by a lot of heaviness as the episodes progress. It is easy to recognize and applaud the character growth in the second season of Grace And Frankie, but the way the season transitions into harsh realism for some of its conflicts is occasionally disconcerting. Sure, that's life, but it's not always entertainment and Grace And Frankie is not as uplifting or entertaining in its second season as it was in the first.

For other works from the 2015 – 2016 television season, please check out my reviews of:
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 3
The Walking Dead - Season 6
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt - Season 2
Legends Of Tomorrow - Season 1
Jessica Jones - Season 1
Daredevil - Season 2
House Of Cards - Season 4
Doctor Who - Season 9

7/10

For other television reviews, please check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Netflix Gets Another Powerful Emmybait Series With Grace And Frankie Season 1!

The Good: Amazing acting, Great characters, Very funny
The Bad: Very short season, Moments of predictability
The Basics: The six months following their husbands coming out to them lead to an interesting friendship between Grace And Frankie, two seventy year-old women who are virtual opposites!


When it comes to television I am excited about, there are few times comedies make the list. But, when I first learned about Grace And Frankie, I allowed myself to get excited. The cast looked like a refugee camp from the works of Aaron Sorkin; the four main cast members came from The West Wing (reviewed here!) and The Newsroom (season three is reviewed here!) and the premise was engaging. The preview Netflix put up weeks ago presented the first season of Grace And Frankie as a buddy comedy between Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin after their characters' husbands leave them for one another. Any show that has Fonda, Tomlin, Sam Waterston, and Martin Sheen has instant credibility and potential, but in its first season the magic of Grace And Frankie is how the show's writers and executive producers do not waste that potential.

Grace And Frankie is funny and heartwarming in its first season, when it is not agonizing for the realism and sadness it portrays. The show has a mature cast that knows what it is doing and does it incredibly well; Martin Sheen and Jane Fonda play Robert and Grace, who were married for forty years, much like Sol and Frankie, played by Sam Waterston and Lily Tomlin. The casting for types is one thing; the fact that the actors rise to the challenges of making their various relationships seem viable is genius acting.

In the first season, Grace And Frankie starts on what appears to be a typical morning in San Diego. Grace and Frankie have been told by their respective husbands to meet at a favorite restaurant for brunch and the two theorize that their husbands are going to finally retire. They are wrong; Sol stumbles through the news, so Rob tells Grace and Frankie that they are leaving their wives to marry one another. Admitting to twenty years of romantic feelings, Rob and Sol begin divorce proceedings as amicably as they can. Heartbroken, Grace moves into the beach house that the couples bought together decades before . . . but discovers the flaky, hippie Frankie there, getting high.

While Grace's daughters try to support her, Frankie feels mostly alone. Frankie and Sol's sons try to be supportive, but Coyote's addiction issues and his awkward relationship with Mallory (Robert and Grace's married daughter) make it difficult . . . as does the remaining dependence Frankie and Sol have with one another. While Grace leaps out into the dating world again, Frankie is slow to cut her ties with Sol. As Sol and Rob build to their wedding, Frankie and Grace, through living together at the beach house, strike up an unlikely friendship and respect for one another.

First and foremost, Grace And Frankie is smartly-written and frequently funny. When it is not soliciting laughs with memorable lines ("You're making the sand angry!"), the show does an excellent job of tugging at the viewer's heartstrings. Rob and Sol are good men who did a bad thing (lying to their wives for twenty years) for all the right reasons. As the show forthrightly explores their culpability in hiding the feelings Robert and Sol shared, it makes all of the parties involved entirely sympathetic. It is easy to empathize with Grace, Frankie, Robert and Sol!

On the other generational front, Grace And Frankie does in its first season what Transparent (season 1 reviewed here!) failed to do; it creates likable, interesting and (perhaps most importantly) relatable characters. Mallory and Brianna and Coyote and Bud interact as if they all grew up together and their various relationships are intriguingly presented with enough going for each character so that when the main four are not on screen, the viewer does not feel cheated (like the producers and writers are waiting out the clock for their return!).

In the first season, the essential characters in Grace And Frankie are:

Grace - An uptight ex-businesswoman, she was married to Robert for forty years. She is pissed off by Robert coming out and moves into the beach house the two couples once shared. There, she runs into Frankie, who is virtually her opposite. Through their shared experiences living together, she comes to appreciate Frankie. She begins dating an old friend of her, an explorer named Guy and works to cheer Frankie up as the wedding of Rob and Sol looms,

Robert - A divorce lawyer married to Grace for forty years, but who fell in love with Sol twenty years ago. He is more conservative than Sol and has a more assertive nature, which is why he is the one to come out to the wives. He gets upset with Sol for how attached he remains to Frankie,

Frankie - A very New Age type who teaches art to former convicts, she was married to Sol for forty years and is reviled by Grace. She and Sol did not have children biologically of their own, so they adopted Bud and Coyote. She refuses to leave the beach house when Grace abruptly moves in and after a drug-soaked night together, they begin to bond. She remains very attached to Sol, still sharing things like the annual Spelling Bee together,

Sol - A fairly flaky law partner with Robert who spent forty years married to Frankie, he is so against hurting anyone that he becomes unable to tell Frankie his feelings. He is affectionate toward Robert and struggles to make him more emotionally-realized,

Brianna - She takes over Grace's business after her mother retires from the beauty company she runs. She gets a dog and manages to get a boyfriend who works under her . . . with hilarious consequences when Coyote and Bud end up on their date,

Mallory - The married youngest daughter of Grace and Rob, she and Coyote had a relationship years ago. She has two children and is awkward around Coyote still,

Coyote - An ex-drug addict who had a blackout night that resulted in him telling Mallory his feelings, which makes being around her difficult after their parents come out. He crashes at Bud's house while getting sober and decides to look for his birth mother,

and Bud - The most well-adjusted adult child of the bunch, he works at Rob and Sol's firm and handles the divorces. He is protective of both parents and not at all against Sol and Robert's relationship . . . and there's a reason for that, which comes out on the day of the divorce.

The characters are fun and interesting and they are all incredibly well performed. In a key scene, Martin Sheen emotes with only his eyes with utter heartbreak (on a golf cart) and Sam Waterston manages to give an utterly different, but equally zany performance as his portrayal of Charlie Skinner on The Newsroom. Sheen and Waterston have amazing on-screen chemistry. Sheen and Jane Fonda and Waterston and Lily Tomlin have chemistry that make their relationships seem credible. Fonda and Tomlin give smart, daring performances and make Grace And Frankie pop.

The first season of Grace And Frankie illustrates the strength and weakness of Netflix series'. The thirteen episodes that result in just over seven hours of entertainment make the viewer desperate for more . . . and pissed that we'll have to wait at least a year for it!

For other works from the 2014 – 2015 television season, please check out my reviews of:
Agent Carter - Season 1
Daredevil - Season 1
The Newsroom - Season 3
House Of Cards - Season 3
Doctor Who - Season 8
True Blood - Season 7
”Scars” - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
”Grodd Lives” - The Flash

8/10

For other television reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Oscar Pandering Season Reaches Its Peak With Selma!

The Good: Moments of performance, Generally engaging story, Some good character choices
The Bad: Some unfortunate casting/performance choices, Thematically heavy-handed
The Basics: Selma makes for a surprisingly bland historical drama that tries to capitalize on Awards’ Season, rather than telling a timeless and important story of the Civil Rights Movement!


Almost two years ago, I read and was quite inspired by, The Autobiography Of Martin Luther King Jr. (reviewed here!) and it awoke in me the sensation of just how far the Civil Rights Movement has to go before all people are free (though my perceptions are now very much on a different direction for the movement). So, when Selma was announced, I was actually pretty excited about it. . . . then it got a release date. Selma’s limited release in New York City and Los Angeles in the last few weeks of 2014 before its wide release in 2015 makes the film perhaps the most obvious bit of Oscarbait this season. As major studios bombard viewers with heavily-dramatic films designed to showcase the talents of directors and actors who could not possibly open the same films during Summer Blockbuster Season and be remembered until Academy (and Golden Globe) voters had to vote for their favorites of the year, Selma is doing exactly what it is “supposed” to do.

Selma is a tool being used by Paramount Pictures and the Hollywood studio system to retain influence and help performers, directors, and the like woo investors. If those releasing Selma actually wanted to make a statement and honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., they would have released it well in advance of the 2012 Midterm elections in order to use its messages of social change as a clarion call to inspire voters. But, Selma and its December/January staggered release is a business move. Clearly Oprah Winfrey, whose HARPO Productions helped finance Selma, learned an important lesson from the release of The Butler, which had an August release back in 2013, garnered a great deal of attention and was virtually forgotten by the time Award Season came. Following the thematic heavy-handedness of 12 Years A Slave (reviewed here!), Selma hits screens with additional burdens. The film can educate the young (though “segregation is bad” seems to have an obvious resonance, much like 12 Years A Slave’s “slavery was brutal”), remind those who lived through it (the job is not yet over) and entertain. The burden on Selma is to “pull an Argo.” Argo (reviewed here!) pulled off something of a cinematic miracle; viewers with even a modicum of education knew exactly how the film would end, but the power of the film was that midway through the movie, viewers forget they know what is coming next because of the tension and captivating performances. In a similar way, Selma is burdened with viewers knowing the significance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, Alabama. Viewers going into Selma have to know that the film will

Selma is exactly as heavy-handed as one might expect. From the moment Annie Cooper is told she has to name all 67 county judges in Alabama in order to have her voter registration approved, viewers know they are in for an unrelenting message movie. Director Ava DuVernay and writer Paul Webb literally hit us in the face with the theme and message moments later when Martin Luther King Jr. is “introduced” to a man in Selma by getting punched in the face. Unfortunately for viewers, Selma does not pull an Argo; there is little entertaining or even engaging to watching the struggle for equality in the organization and execution of the Selma Civil Rights March, at least as it is presented in Selma.

Opening with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Oslo, where he is being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, tensions in the South begin running high when a church is bombed, killing four girls. Returning to the United States, King has the opportunity to meet with President Johnson. Johnson tries to sell King on his “War On Poverty” while Dr. King pushes for voting equality. Finding that the tensions in Selma make it an ideal place to fight the next, significant, battle of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. King makes plans to move his power base there to fight for equal voting rights for Negros. While the FBI works to undermine the King family and Coretta Scott King gets graphic and disturbing harassing phone calls, Dr. King takes up in Selma.

Soon, the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) converges on Selma where they have to negotiate with local movements. Slowly, King and the SCLC organize activists to push for voting reform. Inspired by Dr. King’s speeches and using the infrastructure built years earlier, the black community organizes to fight for their essential human rights.

Director Ava DuVernay does a decent job of tying the movement in Selma to the happenings in Washington, D.C. by periodically including F.B.I. surveillance notes on Dr. King up on screen. The technique works to bind the elements of the story to show well how the push and pull between the Civil Rights Movement and the institutions within the U.S. government reacted to one another.

Selma has a predictably wonderful cast, led by David Oyelowo as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. One has to figure that playing Dr. King is the role of a lifetime for virtually any black actor (because, let’s face it, the casting requirements pretty much demand “black male” above all else – recast that role and your film never gets off the ground!) and Oyelowo certainly has the look for it. Almost immediately in Selma, Oyelowo presents a powerfully human interpretation of Dr. King. Oyelowo’s King is moody, sullen and more-often-than-not exhausted. While this works exceptionally well to create a more well-rounded and realistic character (my review is solely of the film, not actual historical events or the real-life people portrayed in the film!), David Oyelowo’s performance becomes a harder sell than it ought to be. The film shows Dr. King excited most in his stereotypical social moments – the first meeting at Miss Johnson’s house has an unfortunate Black Barbershop Stereotype feel to it – and with Oyelowo’s moodiness, he fails to capture the raw charisma of Dr. King. In other words, there is a strange discontinuity in Oyelowo’s performance; he does not seem old enough at the film’s outset to be portraying the leaders exhausted by years of fighting the fight and F.B.I. surveillance and he does not have the youthful energy to credibly inspire the masses. The result is good casting for physicality and articulation, but falls short on actual performance ability.

The supporting cast of Selma is generally well-cast and fairly well-used. The notable exception to that is Tom Wilkinson. I am a fan of so many of Wilkinson’s works and having him play President Johnson was an unfortunate choice. While Wilkinson might be able to pull of virtually any role, from the moment he first appeared on screen in Selma, I realized that he could be perfectly cast as Nixon. It’s a sad thing to be watching Selma and whenever Wilkinson’s Johnson pops up on screen one has to remind themselves that they are not watching Richard Nixon in action!

At the other end of the spectrum, Wendell Pierce makes great use of his brief time on screen as Williams to present a character who screams with more depth than the moment. Pierce brings a sense of gravitas to the part that implies the history between Williams and King and makes the character of Reverend Williams feel like he has a life outside simply this film. Martin Sheen, Dylan Baker and Carmen Ejogo are all good in Selma.

But, the key role in Selma - outside casting Dr. King – went to Eli Roth. Roth plays Alabama Governor George Wallace and he is an amazing foil to Oyelowo’s King. Roth plays the role with seething anger that contrasts Oyelowo’s calm and he steals the scenes he is in. Roth plays villains well and Wallace is one of his best-presented ones.

But the cast is not enough to make Selma into a film that is likely to do anything other than garner award nominations. The process story elements are not entertaining, the government harassment elements are heavy-handed and obvious and the interplay of the characters is not engaging enough to make the film worthy of attention outside Awards Season.

For other films currently in theaters, please check out my reviews of:
To Write Love On Her Arms
The Last Five Years
The Voices
Love, Rosie
The Seventh Son
Song One
Project Almanac
Match
Vice
American Sniper

6/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Big Effects, Ill-Executed, Spawn Underwhelms!

The Good: Interesting concept, Fairly good plot
The Bad: Many of the character aspects make little sense, Mediocre special effects, Works too hard to be dramatic as opposed to, “Mechanics.”
The Basics: Unfortunately erratic, Spawn feels rushed and less compelling than it ought to be.


I like atypical superhero and graphic novel-based movies. In fact, one of my all-time favorite films is Watchmen (reviewed here!). So, if anything, I was biased in favor of Spawn when I sat down to watch the film this morning. Back in college, I had a good friend who loved Spawn, both the book and the movie. I missed the film in theaters and I decided to watch the film now because I was somewhat surprised that a film that featured Martin Sheen and had the potential for franchise never made a sequel.

Is there nothing Martin Sheen can’t make better? Spawn is not inherently bad and there are elements – like seeing Sheen stretch his range to play a megalomaniacal businessman – that are genuinely decent in the film that features comparatively primitive computer-generated special effects. Conceptually, Spawn feels fresh and different and the only thing similar that has followed it was Constantine (reviewed here!), which was not as ambitious in terms of creature design.

The devil, Malebolgia, wants to turn Earth into a repository of death to harvest more souls. Al Simmons, who is working for Jason Wynn – an evil industrialist with plans to seize power – as an assassin, is smoked by Wynn and his other trained killer, Jessica Priest. Wynn, who is working for a minion of the devil, the Clown, kills Simmons at the Clown’s orders and Simmons, with his dying breath, cries out to his wife, Wanda. Burned and disfigured, Simmons returns to Earth (a sort of parole) to check in on his wife. As a deal with the Malebolgia, Simmons can try to keep Wanda safe if he leads the devil’s army and kills Jason Wynn.

Manipulated into creating a lethal biotoxin, Jason Wynn plans to hold the world hostage until all the businesses and governments join his consortium. Simmons, reborn as the devil’s mercenary, Spawn, returns to Earth and discovers his wife is not together with the man who had been his driver. Targeting Jason Wynn at a gathering, Spawn makes an auspicious entrance and kills Wynn’s replacement assassin, Jessica Priest. Trying to save his family, Spawn finds himself in a war against both Wynn and the Clown (who is soon revealed to be an exceptionally powerful demon). To ensure his plans for world domination come to fruition, Wynn inserts a trigger device in his own heart, tying to detonators around the world which will release his E-16 virus. Trained by a rebel against the devil’s forces, Spawn must choose between working for the forces of darkness or humanity.

Conceptually, the biggest issue with Spawn is that the character of Spawn is supposed to be a soulless minion of the devil. Soulless creatures shouldn’t be tied to anything from their mortal life, at least not with the care that would lead them to betray the force of all evil in the world. So, the fact that Al Simmons seems willing to kill people in his mortal life and then dies in such a way that the Clown and Malebolgia are able to keep him from recalling that he had turned a corner and no longer wanted to be such a ruthless operator, that he would not actually be as invested in saving Wanda and Earth, especially after he sees Wanda with Terry.

Most people are likely to have issues with the CG-effects in Spawn, but they are the by-product of the times. They are not great, by any means, but some of the effects that could have been the most devastatingly cheesy – like the morph of the Clown into Violator – are actually executed with remarkable skill. In fact, Spawn’s chain-weapon and armor looks great. In fact, the only real problem with the effects in Spawn are that they are erratically executed. Some sequences look amazing, others look primitive (and why doesn’t Malebolgia’s mouth move?!).

On the acting front, Martin Sheen does his usual good job. He is credible as the villainous Jason Wynn. D.B. Sweeney is stiff as Terry (horrible delivery in his last time on screen!), but he and Theresa Randle (Wanda) have good on-screen chemistry. John Leguizamo plays the Clown well-enough. The character is annoying, but Leguizamo makes the creepy, unsettling, and seldom actually funny character seem viable and truly menacing. Given that, especially at the time, Leguizamo was known for humor roles and had achieved on that merit, that he could effectively play an unsettling villain is a decent stretch.

Much of the film’s acting comes down to the talents of Michael Jai White, who plays Al Simmons/Spawn. White is good, but he spends much of the time obscured by burn make-up and armor which inhibits his abilities to emote using his facial expressions. This might not be so unfortunate, save that often his eyes are obscured at least and he loses his emotional resonance as he growls through many of his lines. He is adequate to the task, but he fails to life the character of Spawn up to any truly heroic levels.

On DVD, Spawn comes with a commentary track, a few featurettes (making-of and one on the books upon which the film is based) and the trailers for the film and the animated series. They are decent bonus features.

Spawn is a take-it or leave-it comic book film and while I enjoyed it, it was a much harder sell than the concept should have been. Director Mark A.Z. Dippe must bear some of the blame; the film is shot, edited and uses music to try to maximize the sense of drama and it comes across as melodramatic as a result. In other words, instead of being epic and sweeping and menacing and grand, Dippe cheats and uses music and cuts the film in a way that seems to want to say, “See here! This is cool! Look now, it’s awesome!” This is unfortunate and leaves the viewer wishing that the film had the substance and consistency to back up those “tags.”

For other films based on comic books or graphic novels, please check out my reviews of:
The Batman Anthology
Avengers
Hanna

5/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Tragedies Of Hindsight And Regret Are Explored In The Way

The Good: Decent character study, Decent acting, Good direction, Nice scenery
The Bad: Light on plot
The Basics: When his son dies in France, Tom takes up the journey he was on in The Way.


It is, admittedly, difficult to make a film about regret, especially trying to make a new film that focuses on that emotion as a theme. Making a film that is engaging and worth watching on the subject of regret or breaking addictions is even more difficult. And yet, Emilio Estevez manages to do just that with the film he wrote (for the screen), produced, and directed, The Way. I learned of the movie back in 2010 when it was released, but I did not get around to watching it until now.

As a fan of The West Wing (reviewed here!), Martin Sheen has a pretty exceptional cache with me for what I will watch provided he simply shows up. The Way is a film that brings together Martin Sheen, his son Emilio Estevez, with a special appearance by Emilio’s sister, Renee, and my jury is still out on how good the acting in The Way actually is. After all, Emilio Estevez plays a character who is the son of Martin Sheen’s character, so Sheen’s portrayal of grief in scenes where Tom identifies Daniel’s body are hardly the by-product of amazing acting. But, as a character-driven journey drama, The Way is a smashing success, even if its art house circuit release never made it a commercial success. The Way is not the type of film that is intended for a mass blockbuster appeal, though its message is a timeless, secularly-executed emotional journey that more people would do well to pay attention to.

The optometrist, Tom, is out golfing with his friends when he gets a phone call. The call is from France and it is then that Tom learns that his son, Daniel, has died there. Regretfully recalling how he did not accompany Daniel on his son’s journey, Tom goes to France. There, he identifies Daniel’s body and decides to take up his son’s journey. Taking up the 800 kilometer trek known as the El Camino De Santiago, Tom tries to do honor to his son and work through his feelings of loss and regret.

Along the way, Tom meets a Dutch traveler, Joost, who is taking the hike to try to lose weight for his brother’s wedding and Sarah, a Canadian who wants to quit smoking. They also encounter a priest, an Irish writer wrestling with writer’s block, and any number of locals who have an effect on Tom. While his journey starts as a solitary quest, he soon finds himself accompanied by the others, making the long trip through weather and emotional turmoil.

The Way is a predictable emotional journey that provides Tom with peace over the loss of his son. It is hard to blame Estevez for that; the hike can only really end with Tom getting emotional catharsis, learning he was right about his lifestyle or dying along the way. The journey narrative is a somewhat limited one, but Estevez presents it well. In fact, The Way looks like it might take a problematic detour with the introduction of the manic writer, Jack, but the script and performances hold together through the addition of the Irishman. Estevez uses it for a chance to redicate The Way to the internal journey of Tom. He wants no part in Jack’s book and at that point in the film, the movie begins to wander toward “who might Tom run into next,” and returns its focus to Tom’s sense of isolation and his internal emotional conflict.

Beyond that, though, The Way is hard to discuss and evaluate; it is what it is. Comedic interludes like the one with El Ramon keep the film from becoming too heavy or overbearing, but for the most part, The Way is a quiet, emotional journey that sets out with a simple premise and executes that well. By the end, the viewer cares about Tom, and (to a lesser extent) his comrades, and The Way is more substantial than just a travelogue for those considering El Camino De Santiago.

For other works with Deborah Kara Unger, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Silent Hill
Payback
The Game

7/10

Check out how this film stacks up against the others I have reviewed by visiting my Movie Review Index Page where reviews are organized from best to worst.

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Bobby: Another Big Cast Movie I Wanted To Like More

The Good: Awesome cast, Some decent acting, Some interesting characters, DVD extras
The Bad: Most of the characters are not developed enough, Use of archival footage/direction
The Basics: Awkwardly combining archived footage and newly directed material, the fateful day of RFK's primary victory in California is recreated in a painstaking and painful way.


Sometimes movies that have huge casts know how to use those big casts. They wow the audience with their performances with sheer force of numbers. So, for example, critics often overlook the magnificent Cradle Will Rock (reviewed here!) because the caliber of the actors in it is so high as to overwhelm the audience and for as hard as I was on Mystic River (reviewed here!), the main reason was because all of the actors were so extraordinary that their performances only lived up to the high expectations of greatness from such a group. In fact, the last movie I saw with a massive, well-known cast that truly disappointed me was A Prairie Home Companion (reviewed here!). And then there was Bobby, a film I was excited about and just caught on DVD.

On June 6th, 1968 in Los Angeles California, the California primary is heating up as a contest between Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Senator McCarthy and the victory speech for RFK is set for that night at the Ambassador Hotel. As the day progresses, workers, performers and patrons of the Ambassador Hotel prepare for the arrival of Kennedy and there are numerous conflicts and collisions that occur, prompting actions and reactions. The people spending the day going about their lives include kitchen help, notably Jose and Miguel - Latino workers compelled to work a double shift - and black chef Edward Robinson. When Timmons fails to allow the workers to go vote, his boss Paul fires him. Paul is not having the best day as this is the day he and his mistress, Angela, part ways and his wife Miriam finds out about his indiscretion. Retired doorman John Casey sits in the lounge playing chess with those who will play with him, like Nelson. In the hotel's lounge, Virginia Fallon is set to give her final performance and leave town after introducing RFK.

Outside the immediate politics of the hotel, though still encompassed within the walls of the structure, there are a number of personal and political machinations at work. Fallon's husband Tim has chosen this day to leave Virginia. The establishment is overrun with campaign workers for Robert F. Kennedy, like Jimmy and Cooper who spend the day getting high instead of working. They get LSD from Fisher and spend the day tripping. This is unlike Wade and Dwayne, who have spent the day working to create a victory for RFK in the primary. This is the day that Diane is marrying William so he will be sent to Germany instead of Vietnam. It is also the day RFK supporters Jack and Samantha arrive to see the future president.

The recent success of such movies as Crash (reviewed here!) that employ large casts with characters involved in intertwining storylines have encouraged other writers and directors to explore the same with their own ideas. Bobby is written and directed by Emilio Estevez, who also appears in the movie as Tim Fallon. The problem here is that while Estevez certainly captures the chaos and scope of the Ambassador Hotel on that June day, the character elements are sacrificed to fit all of the stories in.

In short, because there are essentially twenty one integral characters (none of whom are Bobby Kennedy) with at least three other recurring characters that try to squeeze in for time, none of them have the chance to fully develop and be explored. Instead, they are almost all given the short run of screentime.

Which leads me to one of the biggest criticisms of Bobby; the title. Titles, any writer will tell you, are incredibly important and Bobby is a misnomer. This is not a film about Robert F. Kennedy. While it certainly does tell the story of one of the most fateful days in American history, it almost completely neglects the real stories of Robert F. Kennedy's day. This is a story about the Ambassador Hotel, building up to RFK's arrival, it's not about Bobby Kennedy. Certainly everyone in the hotel is there directly or indirectly because of Kennedy, but he is an ancillary character in the story.

Moreover, Kennedy appears in the film through use of historical clips, many from news reports using archive footage. Kennedy, Mike Wallace and another news anchor appear in grainy clips that illustrate the reality of the day. Unfortunately, Estevez combines these clips with the main footage of the movie, pulling the viewer out of narrative as he tells it. Instead of relegating the quotes and clips with RFK to a prologue and epilogue, Bobby uses footage throughout that integrates poorly with the actual movie.

Nowhere is this more problematic than near the climax of the film. While Kennedy is on stage in clips that are wonderfully restored for the film, he is flanked by historical figures who the viewer have been watching for the past hour and a half. Yes, Estevez clumsily integrates footage that includes the real Wade - for example - and for those looking at the continuity, this is a terrible attempt to reconcile the movie with itself. To make clear, Estevez uses footage from reality and tries to put it into the movie, usually when RFK is involved and the footage does not match in terms of quality nor composition, making the movie very poorly assembled in the end.

Estevez should have used his RFK stand in Dave Fraunces - or found another actor - to recreate RFK footage for the movie as opposed to sloppily sticking in old clips.

That said, what we do see about the various characters is enough to make this film work at least one viewing. The dialogue between Jose, Miguel and Edward is phenomenal. Rarely in American cinema is there discussion of interethnic dynamics that calls it as it sees it, documenting the tensions between blacks and latinos. Edward's conversation about how he lost his anger is amazing and very compelling. Despite how little screentime he has, he resonates as a worthwhile and intriguing character.

Similarly, the weird relationship between soon-to-be-spouses Diane and William is awkward, stilted and in every way wonderful. When Diane quietly declares that she would have married the two people from her high school that recently were killed in Vietnam if it would have saved their lives is telling and sad. William's understanding that Diane's willingness to marry him is not necessarily based on love is sad and touching.

The character that is most developed and least overstated is John Casey, the former doorman. He is quite simply lonely and retired, occupying a couch in the lobby playing chess in order to stave off utter loneliness and lethargy. His mind is sharp and he has wonderful memories of the Ambassador Hotel, but he is a man who had nowhere to go in retirement and ends up desperate for any interaction with people.

Casey is played with wonderful simplicity by Sir Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins has one of his most understated roles here and he creates a character with both quiet dignity and desperation as he waits for the day to end. I've never seen Hopkins played bewildered as well as he does in the climax of this film.

Sadly, most of the other actors do not have the chance to shine as much as they deserve. Almost completely neglected is Martin Sheen whose bit part in Bobby makes the viewer wonder why he took it (though supporting his son is a good enough reason for me!). And while Laurence Fishburne is wonderfully cast as Edward Robinson, his performance is nothing we have not seen from him in, say, The Matrix. He plays the sage quite well, but here he does nothing to impress the viewer with his range.

Neglected even more is one of my favorites, William H. Macy, who wowed me in Magnolia (reviewed here!). Macy plays the hotel's manager, Paul and his role is little more than a cameo at key moments, a clear underuse of his talents. Also appearing with minimal screentime are Elijah Wood, Lindsay Lohan, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore and Emilio Estevez. And while it's wonderful to see Freddy Rodriguez in a film, his part is nothing terribly challenging or different from his signature role in Six Feet Under.

I will note that Joshua Jackson stood out as Wade. Jackson has a seriousness to him that allows him to perfectly embody a young aide to a politician. He seems like a manager and he has a dignity that I would not have anticipated from him.

On the DVD presentation, one of the coolest features is a panel discussion with people who were actually at the Ambassador Hotel the night in question. Their conversation is insightful and it has a strength to it that wonderfully tells the story of reality from a different perspective after Estevez's production is over.

It is only the strength of what is revealed by characters in what little time they are given, combined with the strength of the acting when the actors are permitted to present their talents and the decent DVD bonuses that save this otherwise mediocre film. Sadly, while I watched, I continued to wait for it to become extraordinary and was a little let down when the best it achieved was adequate. Recommended for a viewing, as opposed to purchasing for a permanent collection.

For other works with Freddy Rodriguez, check out my takes on:
Six Feet Under
Havoc
Payback

6/10

For other film reviews, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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