The Humbling (2015)

Why so much hype?

Very best movie i ever watch

It is a performances centric movie

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

I was excited when I heard that Al Pacino was going to star in a movie based on Philip Roth's novel The Humbling. I've read all of Roth's novels and I was hugely impressed by the film version of his first, Goodbye Columbus. Alas, the other film versions of Roth's novels have been disappointing, from the miscast Human Stain, the lackluster Elegy (from his novel The Dying Animal) to the ineptly terrible Portnoy's Complaint. I hoped that Pacino would help make The Humbling memorable. Pacino is great in the movie. So is Greta Gerwig, whose magnetic personality revives Pacino's aged actor and draws her female and transsexual exes back to her, despite her starting a new relationship with a man. What lets the film down is the script. Several people have commented here on the Last Act's similarities with Birdman. I don't know who came up with the idea first of having a troubled older actor having a breakdown on the stage and confusing fantasy and reality. Roth's Simon Axler is aware of what's happening to him and around him. He doesn't have any illusions about Pegeen and her past: as in the film, her ex lover, the dean, warns him constantly that Pegeen uses people and dumps them when she's through with them. He knows he's bankrupting himself by buying her expensive clothes (it would have helped the film to show them going around Prada stores in New York rather than an ordinary looking clothing store near Simon's house.) In the book Simon doesn't return to the stage. Pegeen comes to spend the weekend at his house. He's ready to tell her that he can father a child, after meeting with a doctor and having a fertility check. Before they can have dinner and talk, Pegeen appears with a packed bag and tells him it's over. She takes her expensive clothes and he suspects she's leaving him for the woman they picked up at the restaurant. I was let down that the threesome scene, so pivotal in the book, is revealed to be a fantasy sequence in the movie- we see Simon waking to find Pegeen and the woman hand in hand, ignoring him. The novel's Simon enjoys Pegeen's audaciousness, and despite his back problems encourages her in exploring her desires. The sex toys make an appearance in the film too, but as a symbol of Simon's not being able to satisfy her. Pacino's Simon isn't anywhere as adventurous as Pegeen, and it's no wonder when she leaves him. I was also surprised by Sybil's speech to Simon revealing that she discovered her husband abusing her 8 year old daughter. She's tragic in the book, and ends up killing her husband, then killing herself. In the film the abuse is brushed away and quickly forgotten. Like Sybil's family, Simon and the audience see her as a deluded character who's fixated on Simon's acting as a hit man to shoot her husband, as he once played a Death Wish type role in a movie. The movie begins with several promising themes about losing one's gift, one's way in life, and fantasy being taken for reality, then reality as fodder for sensationalism- Sybil turns into another hot story on True Crime TV programs. The movie would be far more powerful if it followed the novel more, if it ended with Simon alone, with his life empty, turning to a Hemingway style suicide, thinking of Sybil as a last inspiration. Instead, there's a final scene derivative of Birdman's real gun being fired on stage that is utterly unconvincing. Surely if an actor stabs himself with a real knife the other actors wouldn't continue with the final lines of the play but would call an ambulance instead. The Last Act is worth watching, but I recommend that people read the book before they see the movie, and think of how it could have been a heartbreaking view of a man who like King Lear, has to face his hard existence after he has lost his power and the one who he loves.

Oy what a mess. I rented this because the little bit of info presented by Netflix sounded interesting and with Al Pacino I figured who can go wrong. As I understand other reviews, hes had some bombs recently, but I figured this cant stink because I'M watching it. Boy was I wrong. The whole thing is a big fat bore from the man who brought me Michael Corleone or Dog Day Afternoon. Al whats happened to thee? I also figured with Barry Levinson involved.it would be at least good. It has a good cast in the lesbian girl, Weist, Hedaya,Grodin accompanying Al. Nothing saves it, its pretentious windbag of a story, we have seen before. Its so deep and seminal, its NOT.

It's a wonder this film was ever made. The iconic and prolific author Philip Roth wrote the novel of the same name, 'The Humbling' this movie is based on. It was his 30th book and was met with a lot of negative reviews, most of which said that it was a lazy and terrible piece of work from a writer who goes for quantity over quality. But the film has its merits and becomes quite a good, if not funny film in the second half. It just takes a little bit to get there.'The Humbling' is eerily similar to the recent 'Birdman' film that starred Michael Keaton. Both movies center around an aging beloved actor who is trying to make their comeback on stage at the theatre. Each central character may or may not be going crazy. There are even similar scenes where the central character from both films are locked out of the theatre while their play is going on, and a few scenes where they are having conversations with versions of themselves in front of mirrors.But what 'The Humbling' has that 'Birdman' does not have, is a heavy emphasis on the sexual comedy of an older man (Al Pacino) and a twenty-something lesbian woman (Greta Gerwig). It plays out like some sort of Woody Allen film from the early 90s in with each of these wacky characters trying to interact with each other. And director Barry Levinson ('Good Morning Vietnam', 'Rain Man') proves at age 72 that he still has a stylistic eye and hasn't lost his step. Pacino plays Simon Axler, an award winning and wealthy actor who has been in numerous film, but is mostly known for his work with Shakespeare on the big stage. The first scene shows that he is completely drunk before he is supposed to go perform, where he hurls himself off stage in to the orchestra pit.After that unfortunate business and a mismanaged suicide attempt, Simon ends up in a nice rehab center, where he discusses his career and acting with the other patients. Soon enough, Simon is released from rehab, but on the condition that he interacts via Skype with his psychiatrist (Dylan Baker), which plays to a hilarious effect. Simon moves back into his luxurious estate by himself and is visited by a young woman named Pegeen (Greta Gerwig), whom he last saw when she was only 10 years old. Pegeen's mother (Dianne Wiest) and Simon were old theatre buddies and actors in their younger days. Pegeen is a fun girl-next-door type of beautiful, and let's everyone know she is a lesbian, but for some reason throws herself at Simon, saying the lesbian thing was a 16-year long mistake.This new relationship with many years in between the two now lovers have angered a few of Pegeen's previous lovers including her boss (Kyra Sedgwick) and former post-op ex-girlfriend who goes by Prince (Billy Porter). From here, the film becomes increasingly better as more kooky characters show up at Simon's doorstep, as he talks incessantly to anyone who will listen about his new relationship and acting abilities. It's quite funny with probably the best and funniest scene involving Simon and Pegeen's parents at a veterinary clinic where Simon is under the heavy influence of heavy duty tranquilizers. You've never seen Al Pacino this funny.Gerwig is wonderful in this role. She pulls you in with her charm and wit and still root for her when she makes bad choices. And of course, Pacino is brilliant in each scene. There is no over-the-top yelling from him, but rather an inconsistent, rambling of narration about his life. His struggle to figure out what his new relationship means with a possible onset of some rather debilitating diseases that effect the elderly is perfectly crafted by Pacino. And again, despite his age, he is still on top of his game. 'The Humbling' is the budget 'Birdman', but without all of the symbolism, imagery, and magical realism. It's a slow burn film that works best when Pacino is around his co-stars.

Al was broken, penniless and decided to shoot the worst movie of his life to keep buying stuff for his much younger lover, it is not worth seeing this movie. Is an awful copy of Bird man. Bad acting amidst a worst script. There is a serious mental illness in the movie the one that suffer the guy who wrote the script. In the movie there is an actor too old to play that make every body miserable, Al is the actor and the audience that is to say we are made miserable. Save your many and go see some thing else. I would like to tell you some thing else but I cannot, there is a heated pool in winter in Connecticut, and a girl from Baywatch swimming in it. There is a also ghost from some Shakespeare play that rumbles the story aimlessly without propose nor reason.