Coming Of Age
‘DANNY COLLINS’ TRAILER REVIEW BY METRO CREW
Al Pacino stars as aging rock star Danny Collins. His songs have made him world famous, but he traded in artistic integrity for a paycheck long ago. When he receives a letter John Lennon wrote him 40 years ago — that he’s just getting now — he’s forced to confront the fact that he’s never really done anything he’s truly proud of. It’s sort of based on a true story — only the musician, folk singer Steve Tilston, who received a way-late letter from Lennon, never saw much commercial success.
Danny Collins opens April 10 at Kahala Theatre >>
NICOLE: This trailer was kind of all over the place for me. At first I thought that it was going to be a movie about his musical comeback of sorts, or his lengthy journey out of depression. But come to find out that it’s about him reuniting with his son. Then what the hell does John Lennon’s letter have to do with him getting to know his son (aka Will and Grace/ Boardwalk Empire guy)??
PAIGE: This is like the antithesis of a Paige movie: There’s no explosions, no one’s beautiful and the costumes are despairingly ordinary. Honestly, if I had time to watch two movies, and you put me in a room with this movie and Twilight, I’d watch Twilight twice.
JAIMIE: Sometimes, movies about old people self-actualizing make me sad. Like, your life would have been way better if you had taken care of that years ago. And now you’re old.
CHRISTINA: I usually like coming-of-age stories for people who are way too old to be coming of age. But you’re right — this one seems like it might be especially sad because basically his whole career has gone by and he doesn’t seem too happy with it.
PAIGE: The “aging artist figure decides to atone for a life of excess” trope is very unappealing to me. Probably because all the really great artists and musicians die tragically young … If you live to be 70, the allure wears off because you’ve made too many sad, strange decisions to still be mythical.
JAIMIE: It does look like a possibly charming film, though.
I credit that entirely to Capt. von Trapp — oh, I mean, Christopher Plummer. Dude has aged well. I can’t say the same for Al Pacino, but he does look less scary now.
JAMES: I like Pacino. He was Michael Corleone. Scarface. Iconic characters. He even played Satan masquerading as a lawyer. You can plug him into a weary cop or aging gangster, and he just syncs right up. What is he doing here in this old premise? Pacino explored this conceit best in Donnie Brasco, and on top of that, people were getting killed all around him. This looks tame.
NICOLE: Christopher Plum-mer seems like the kind of guy who would make the most perfect grandpa ever. And I totally wanted to be just like Jennifer Garner in Alias.
CHRISTINA: I know that Jennifer Garner has that whole sweet and innocent thing going for her and is supposed to be incredibly likable — and she is — but I also feel like she just plays Jennifer Garner in every movie. Although, I will say that Catch and Release is one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies. But maybe mostly because of Timothy Olyphant.
PAIGE: I always get Robert De Niro and Al Pacino mixed up. I thought they were the same person for years …
NICOLE: The whole banter with Al Pacino and Annette Bening having their back-and-forth about being on drugs and him hitting on her was totally great.
JAMES: The trailer seemingly sets us up for a romance between the two. Pacino asks her out repeatedly and gets rejected. It’d be great if the flick subverted that expectation at the very end. “Dinner? Oh, come on!” he’d ask, credits rolling. “Come on! One dinner! How about lunch? Coffee? One coffee! Annette?!” Lights come on. Credits end.
