Now 82, Burt Reynolds has had a phenomenal Hollywood career. From 1978-1982 he was America's number one box office star. Part of his charm seemed to stem from an aura of not taking himself too seriously, of having fun on the job. Those parts of his persona and many more come to the fore in
The Last Movie Star (2017), which I watched last night courtesy of Netflix. It's the story of Vic Edwards, whose bio is similar to Reynolds'. In fact, CGI is used in dream sequences where the star talks to characters he played as a young man, including
Deliverance (1972). He attends a film festival in his honor in Nashville, not knowing it's a shoestring budget affair, albeit run by rabid fans. He is driven about in a beat up car owned by the neurotic sister of the festival's organizer, wonderfully played by Ariel Winter. Only 20, she already has 70 titles under her name at IMDb. She is a regular on
Modern Family and, for the past five years, has done a voice-over on
Sofia the First. She and Reynolds share excellent repartee. Her character had never heard of him prior to the festival. Disappointed by the threadbare affair, wary that he is the victim of a prank that will go viral, he begins to misbehave, drunkenly demeaning everyone present. Rather than attend the second day of screenings, he has his escort drive him to his home town, Knoxville, where he goes on a nostalgic jag that includes a meeting with his first wife, the love of his life, who is now in an old age home suffering from Alzheimer's. She is touchingly played by Kathleen Nolan, who co-starred as Walter Brennan's daughter on
The Real McCoys way back in the day. Edwards fell prey to all the temptations that come with stardom, driving her away. Like many humans, he is dogged by regret, the feeling that he has done it all wrong. Although this is not a great film, it is one of those times when the predictable and sentimental work well. I wondered if it was Reynolds last hurrah, but a check of his credits reveals he has followed this effort with eight more titles, three still to be released. He remains in demand. This was my first encounter with the work of Adam Rifkin, who was at the helm and also wrote the screenplay. He has 24 credits directing, 24 writing, and 22 acting. How disappointed Reynolds and he must be that the flick has been virtually ignored. According to Box Office Mojo, it has brought in only $14,000 domestically, which suggests it was pulled shortly after its release. And there was no nomination for best actor. That's a shame.
The Last Movie Star is a fine tribute to Reynolds that his fans would enjoy, although the viewer will suffer the sadness that no one, even the biggest star, is forever young. 1700+ users at IMDb have rated it, forging to a consensus of 6.4 on a scale of ten. Here is a still from the flick:
For the fourth straight session the floating book shop saw above average results. My thanks to the young man who bought
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb; and to the other who purchased a compilation of fiction about dogs; and to the woman who selected five novels, among them Danielle Steel's
Wanderlust, Chaim Potok's
My Name Is Asher Lev, and Harry Kemelman's
Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home.
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