Boulevard (2014) Life is Beautiful with Robin Williams (vol.2)
“Suddenly I’m 60 years old. It’s like I’m still there, like nothing happened”
Following minimal production credits and an immediate fade to black we dissolve to a purposely blurred image of “Nolan Mack” (Robin Williams) offering his father “Lionel Mack” (Gary Gardner) a somewhat illicit sip of his ginger ale in his father’s hospice before being rebuked for doing so by an unseen nurse. When the blurred image finally clears we fade to black once more before returning to Nolan holding his can of ginger ale and considering his father’s ailing condition, asks “Do you really think it matters?” and as we fade to black again, he mutters “Try it, Dad”.
Accompanied by the beautifully gentle, melodic and ambient musical score of Jimmy Huan and David Wittman, Nolan leaves the hospice as the film’s simple opening credits begin and after “BOULEVARD” in a small capitalised and white font disappears, we join Nolan inside his car as he drives the streets of his home city for the first time of many in the coming film. Following another fade to black we hear the screeching of an alarm clock and after raising himself from his bed and brushing his teeth, Nolan stares at the haggard and somewhat aged 60 year old reflection he sees in the bathroom mirror before we quickly cut to Nolan entering his wife’s bedroom with a morning cup of tea. Clearly estranged and sleeping in separate bedrooms “Joy Mack” (Kathy Baker) is at first pleased to see Nolan in his regular morning routine and after a brief discussion as to the merits or otherwise of the current book she’s reading, Nolan excuses himself to go to work with a gentle kiss on the top of his wife’s forehead. Yet they barely make eye contact as he leaves.
We cut to a close-up of a smiling Nolan as he has the very great pleasure of announcing to the two young men sat opposite him that their mortgage application has been approved before excusing himself to secure a final seal of approval from his manager who makes a horribly distasteful and homophobic remark of “God is going to strike me dead for this one” as he approves the mortgage. Smiling awkwardly, Nolan is anxious to return to his clients with the happy news, but his manager repeatedly keeps him in his office with first a question about his happiness as Nolan replies that he’s “Happy as anyone I guess” and then his happiness at the bank he’s served for 25 years. “Almost 26” Nolan corrects him with a nervous smile and still looking anxiously in the direction of his clients, his manager repeatedly tells him to relax, that he’ll return to them shortly and anyway, he has further good news for the bank’s longest employee: A meeting with the Vice President of the bank and possible promotion to bank manager at a branch across town. Nolan affixes yet another false smile for this surprising and unexpected news and yet he remains anxious to return to his clients and finally, to his relief, he leaves the manager’s office.
After work we cut to Nolan preparing an evening meal at home and after dashing out to grab a bottle of wine as “only the best for the Professor” we are immediately introduced to his best friend, author and college lecturer “Winston” (Bob Odenkirk) and his much, much younger new girlfriend “Patty” (Eleonore Hendricks) at a laughter filled dinner party hosted by Nolan and Joy. More than a little drunk, holding court and dominating the conversation, Winston traverses the conversational topics of Salman Rushdie, work and literature before joking with an appreciative smile “The food was excellent, the company even better, and the wine definitely $7.99”. As director Dito Montiel slowly moves his camera around the dining table, Winston continues to dominate the topic of conversation, moving now from wine to opera and foreign movies and as both Nolan and Joy dismiss his rejection of a mutual love of theirs, smiles and laughter reverberate around the table as Joy leaves to collect an after dinner dessert but not before announcing that the cook for the evening was husband Nolan who doffs an imaginary cap to his best friend and girlfriend.
Returning from the kitchen, Winston asks Joy what book she’s currently reading before again dominating the conversation and this time, the 6 day cruise to Alaska he and Patty have just returned from. This piques Joy’s interest immensely (but not before a beautiful insert of both Nolan and Joy smiling at each other but each smile is missed by the other) to Joy excitedly exclaiming to Nolan “We should think of a cruise sometime”. Hesitantly, and through false smiles, Nolan agrees, before Winston turns the conversation towards Nolan’s impending promotion at work, a fact and piece of good news that until now, he hadn’t imparted to his wife. The director’s camera catches them looking at each other once more and where before they missed each other’s smiles, now they glance at each other without a smile to be had. Especially so Joy who announces her surprise at her husband’s possible promotion as we cut first to a wide angled shot of the dinner guests now awkwardly staring at each other before smiles and hugs for departing friends old and new on the doorstep and after Winston and Patty have left, an awkward conversation behind a closed front door as to how “sweet” and “smart” Patty is before Nolan excuses himself to wash the dishes in the kitchen. Joy cuts him off halfway and back at the dining table, asks when he was going to inform her of his potentially good and possibly life changing news? “Winston was a little premature” he begins to explain before Joy now verbally cuts him off with a cutting “But you told him, and not me”. It’s at this point the telephone rings and with news that Nolan’s father has had a suspected heart attack, he immediately leaves for the hospice.
We cut to Nolan watching his father through the glass window of a recovery room window. Stable and out of danger, for now, Nolan leaves the hospice and now driving again, Jimmy Huan’s and David Wittman’s beautiful ambient musical score returns to accompany him as he drives with one eye on the roads ahead and the other on the sidewalks either side of him until he stops at a red traffic light in the city’s red light district. Lost in thought as he awaits the red light to turn green, instead he performs a U-turn and as he returns slowly through the most densely populated stretch of the red light district we cut to a young man crossing the road ahead of him. Nolan doesn’t see him until it’s almost too late, slamming on his brakes just in time and barely missing him. With the young man now stood on the sidewalk, Nolan rolls down his window to apologise and after a moment’s hesitation “Leo” (Roberto Aguire) approaches the open window and asks “You wanna give me a ride?”. Apologising again as Leo settles himself into the front seat, Nolan is profusely sorry as he explains “I’m glad you’re OK as I have a fear of hurting people” before asking where he wants to go.
“You blow me it’s $100” Leo states quietly, anxious to leave and get away from the roadside traffic. “I blow you it’s $150”. But Nolan is lost in thought and hasn’t listened to a word Leo has said or at least, his words aren’t registering. “You have a wife?” Leo asks, as Nolan replies that he does, and why is he asking? A police siren cuts off their awkward conversation as Leo exclaims loudly “You need to drive, now. You need to drive the fucking car”.
Arriving at a roadside motel, Nolan pays at reception before they quickly enter their room. As Leo closes the curtains, Nolan apologises, again, and “This is a little strange for me…”
“Nolan Mack” (Robin Williams) A largely underappreciated performance of quietness and stillness, I adored Robin’s final ever big screen portrayal from the moment I watched it a decade or so ago and now, all these years later, I admire and love it even more. One bombastic outburst aside, this is Robin at his introspective best and in a film far better than sniffy critics would have you believe. Torn to pieces over a sexuality he’s kept hidden since his teenage years, Nolan has a heart of gold and yet I found myself yet again crying out for him NOT to make the choices that he does. But therein lies his conundrum and the beauty that drives the film. Shy. Tender. Soft and especially quiet and conflicted, his final portrayal somewhat mirrors the man himself and then there’s a catharsis of an ending to go with the beautiful musical score and superb supporting roles from Kathy Baker, Roberto Aguire and Bob Odenkirk too.
Overly biased I may be, but a gem of a performance from the great man in a film well worthy of 88 minutes of your time.
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my trilogy of recently self-published books. Beautiful covers eh! As the title(s) would suggest, this is my life at the movies or at least from 1980 to 2024, and in volume 1 you’ll find 80 spoiler free appraisals of movies from debut filmmakers, 91 of the very best films appraised with love and absent of spoilers from 1990–2024 in volume 2, and in volume 3 you’ll find career “specials” on Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino together with the very best of the rest and another 87 spoiler free film reviews from 2001–2024.
All available in hardback and paperback and here are some handy links:
"A Life at the Movies Vol.1" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.2" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.3" - link to Amazon