Director: Aaron Burns
Writer: Justin Strawhand
Stars: K.J. Apa, Max Casella, Kara Kilmer
Synopsis: The story of the iconic role that saved America’s most-beloved actor.
A biopic of one of Hollywood’s most beloved stars should be a big deal. It should pull out all the stops and be something based on a best-selling biography. It should clear all the legal and family hurdles to tell a human story about a celluloid idol. When it doesn’t, when no big studios back the project and no giant stars of today sign on to do their best impersonation of a star of yesteryear, it feels a bit stilted. That’s the way Jimmy, a film about actor Jimmy Stewart, feels.
This movie is incredibly hokey. Some of the actors are playing their roles so broadly it borders on parody. Jason Alexander as Louis B. Mayer is very hammy, but without the true bite we know Mayer to have had and Max Casella as Frank Capra as just another guy from the neighborhood, but with his rough edges smoothed way down. Then you have Rob Riggle as Col. Terrill as a wooden block with the tiniest emotions or inflections. You keep thinking that someone is going to look at the camera or there might be a gag in the background, but no, the filmmakers really were O.K. with this feeling and the uneasiness it creates in the audience. It almost feels like the filmmakers wanted to capture the feeling and presence of a film from Hollywood’s Golden Age, but they didn’t understand how films were made then or why screen acting has evolved beyond those early pioneers.
The biggest problem is the scale of the film. They have grand set pieces with powerful emotional impact and it is completely flat. It’s not about the budget or the lack of CGI, it’s about something in the way director Aaron Burns has tamped down all other actors except for KJ Apa, who plays Jimmy. Everyone else in a scene that should be dialed up to ten is giving about a five or six. There’s a prime example as Jimmy gives a speech to his troops because a soldier expresses misgivings about the assignment. There’s no bluster from Col. Terrill about the insubordination. There’s even barely an irritation from the soldier about his genuine concern, but Jimmy’s ramping up and plowing forward. As much as this is a story from the life of Jimmy Stewart, it seems there’s no room for anyone else and no room for interpersonal conflict.
So much of the film has interpersonal conflict that crops up, but within a few scenes it’s completely and unsatisfactorily resolved. One of the crew is insubordinate. The issue is raised, Jimmy feels bad about it, and a couple Hollywood stories later, everything’s fine. Terrill considers Jimmy’s service a publicity stunt. There’s a couple of muted words exchanged, Jimmy stews about it, and suddenly there’s great respect from the colonel as he hands Jimmy the oak leaves of a major and promotes Jimmy’s crew as well with just Jimmy’s word. Everything outside of Jimmy’s head just falls into place like a puzzle piece.
This is the biggest tragedy of this film. There is something that could be excellent buried under tepid and timid filmmaking. As much as it is a bit too uncanny in voice, KJ Apa’s performance is good. It almost feels like when you watch a James Dean film and he’s acting in a completely different way than all the other performers around him. Apa really disappears into the role and has a way with the hauntedness of a man who lives through war. You can see the turmoil and despair written all over his face and as his posture gets worse. The scenes of JImmy as he tries to come back to acting during the filming of It’s a Wonderful Life are the best. There’s a unique take on the performance within the performance that makes you wonder what would have happened had this material been in better hands with Apa still in the lead.
In this way, the goofiness of everything and everyone else is almost redeemed by the central performance. Yet, it’s not a one man show and the goofiness is just too much to overcome. The inaccuracies and the fact that they didn’t double check their research, King George VI was reigning at the time, not Queen Elizabeth II as all the characters erroneously state, also makes this a sloppy biopic. It’s a movie that is only watchable for its central performance, but fails in every other regard. It’s not a movie to go out of your way to see.
