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Sunday, July 19, 2015

MOVIE REVIEW Boulevard
 A Road Much Traveled, And In Isolation

Robin Williams as Nolan, in his final onscreen performance, in Dito Montiel's drama "Boulevard".  Starz Digital/Anchor Bay
       
by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW                                           
Sunday, July 19, 2015

 “I’m sorry I couldn’t do it for you, dad”, or words to that effect, open Dito Montiel’s “Boulevard”, a drama featuring Robin Williams’ final onscreen performance.  The words, spoken in a hospital, have a double meaning.  Mr. Williams plays Nolan, a sorrowful, closeted gay man whose words and actions form the engines of his anguish.  He’s trapped and yearns to breathe free.  Nolan lives a lie, and the lies pile up until the dam bursts on his 26-year job as a loyal bank employee and his marriage to Joy (an excellent Kathy Baker).

Mr. Williams is aching and openhearted as a man whose freedom to love has been crushed by a society that is on the periphery of Mr. Montiel's film.  Only Nolan’s boss seems to represent the bigotry and homophobia of the silent majority as he spots a married male couple as customers in his bank.  Nolan’s boss implicitly has suspicions about Nolan’s sexuality.

There are no suspicions about "Boulevard" as to its intentions.  It's a measured yet voluble film that internalizes Nolan's state of mind.  "Boulevard" meditates on what it means to be free and to love with the onset of aging in the 21st century, in an era of supposed enlightenment.  In America the aged are usually discarded, often contemptuously.  Sometimes their passions, desires and love are too.  In many quarters in America seniors and their ability to love still isn't taken seriously.  Movies forever mock seniors as a soft easy target.

The film's refrain is easy enough.  Nolan wants love and acceptance -- two things he's never had.  He seeks love during a detour to a young male prostitute.  But for Nolan love is companionship, not sex, and that disappoints Leo (Roberto Aguire), who is looking to fulfill his nightly occupation.  Nolan wants to be a father figure to and loved by Leo but Nolan experiences most of neither, which only further alienates him from his true self and everyone else.  Nolan is never quite on safe footing anywhere or with anyone.  Nolan lives a sad existence, one which "Boulevard" pulsates with.

Nolan’s long-time friend Winston (Bob Odenkirk), a college professor, is the one man Nolan can confide in — and when Nolan explains where he stands to him you feel he’s about to exhale.  But Nolan is constantly arrested.  Indeed, “Boulevard” is shot mostly with very tight shots to represent the confinement Nolan feels.  The truncated angles and shots further restrict the view of Nolan's world.  The one he occupies presently is a world he doesn’t belong to.  In several scenes however, Nolan’s secret turmoil and the outside world come close to colliding. 

“Boulevard”, written by Douglas Soesbe, isn’t an especially memorable or great film, but the sobering atmosphere and melancholy that permeates it brings the right tone and atmosphere to a predictable story without being overbearing.  Watching Mr. Williams’ quiet, compassionate work is priceless, and you feel — at least I did — that he poured all of his laments, pain and even part of his severe depression into the performance.  In the late actor’s hands Nolan is a palpable, urgent and desperate figure, dying on the inside while barely holding things together on the surface.

The film’s two best scenes involve Ms. Baker and Mr. Williams.  The first is a tender moment of recognition in a marriage that has become one of convenience for Nolan as much as it has been one of genuine love for Joy.  Ms. Baker brings the affection and unconditional love to Joy that authenticates her 40-year bond with Nolan.  The second scene is one of tension and compulsion, and even it doesn’t quite provide a fresh-air escape.  All is implied, and “Boulevard” is smart enough not to fling its cards on the table.    

Also with: Giles Matthey, J. Karen Thomas, Eleonore Hendricks, Brandon Hirsch.

“Boulevard” is rated R by the Motion Picture Association Of America for violence and language.  The film's running time is one hour and 27 minutes.
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