PMAG -15 Contemplation Achievement May 2015 Contemplation June 2015 Achievement | Page 36
FILM
DANNY COLLINS
B
eing rich and famous isn’t what corrupts your art, only you can do that. Call me. We can
discuss this.” That’s what’s scribed in a letter written decades ago to a budding rock star,
Danny Collins, by none other than John Lennon and Yoko Ono themselves.
But the message never reached Collins (Al Pacino), now a substance abusing, aged rocker whose financial status and notoriety morphed him to stardom portraying a tragically
campy Neil Diamond knock-off, repeating equally tragic choreography nightly to a fan
base of licorice-eating groupies turned seniors.
The letter, stumbled upon by Collins’ road manager and best friend, Frank Grubman (Christopher Plummer), is finally gifted to him at a ‘surprise’ birthday party thrown by his scantilyclad twenty-something girlfriend - a ridiculous coupling by his own admission.
In the post-party, over-indulged aftermath, Collins sits contemplatively near the pool, his
manager by his side with the splay of his passed-out girlfriend on the grass before them like
a signpost marking the path taken. He laments what might have happened had he followed Lennon’s advice and called him to discuss the pitfalls of selling out.
FILM
Danny Collins, in a moment anointed with cliché
yet appreciated anyway,
realizing that he hadn’t
written a decent song in
over thirty years, checks
out of his rock star life and
into a no frills hotel in blue
collar New Jersey. With a
Steinway piano crammed
into the room and Lennon’s framed letter, he
also plans to meet his
son for the first time – the
grown up progeny of a
long ago encounter with
a groupie, living nearby.
None of this happens
before he demonstrates
the charm and charisma
that made a star of him
in the first place – an entertaining flirtation with
hotel clerk, Mary, endearingly played by Annette
Benning. The relationship
looms large with age-appropriate possibility with
Mary appearing on the
short list of people in his
life not actually buying
what he’s selling and liking him anyway.
Collins’ son, Tom (Bobby
Cannavale), makes the
same sales pitch-resistant
list, preferring to opt out of
any life that includes the
father that never was. His
ADHD-described granddaughter and pregnant
daughter-in-law, Samantha (Jennifer Garner),
provide the perfect “in”
to repair the damage:
Danny pulls strings at a
prestigious and expensive
NYC alternative school for
kids that don’t fit the usual
mould, using his money
and fame to bump his
granddaughter to the top
of a long waiting list. On
the eve that grandpa is
finally triumphing on the
family-front after a tour
bus-ridden day culminating in a Toys R Us binge,
Tom announces that he’s
been withholding the fact
that he has leukemia from
his wife – at least until after the baby is born.
audience chants relentlessly for one of his absurd,
older songs and after he
sadly succumbs, he turns
to hard partying to numb
his pain.
You’d have to be made
of stone not to root for the
guy, to whistle for him to
get up again and give it
another shot. To have his
son get well, and to actually go out to dinner with
Mary at long last, who
promises that she will, but
only after he performs his
new songs. So it happens
even if ever so predictably - the discovery that
any path leading to love,
however messed up and
off-course it gets, can’t
be wrong.
HHHHI
Reminded that life is indeed short, while being
stealthily supportive of his
son’s cancer treatment,
Danny embarks on a last
ditch effort on stage,
attempting new material reminiscent of more
meritorious earlier offerings. In the first of such
performance trials, the
A full-fledged Renaissance woman, Lizzie Shanks self-describes, with
tongue firmly lodged in cheek, as having severe career ADHD. She is a
freelance writer, emerging author, and ia Juno Award nominated singer/
songwriter, with three critically acclaimed album releases from her years
with the band Besharah. She is also an interior designer, and has provided
treatment foster care to at-risk youth for over ten years. She is currently
working on a new musical project.
She blogs weekly at www.bigbanglife.org.