'The Humbling' is a marvelous black comedy with deadpan flair
In the marvelous black comedy 鈥淭he Humbling,鈥� based on the 2009 Philip Roth novel, Al Pacino plays 67-year-old Simon Axler, a celebrated stage actor for whom acting has become a sham. 鈥淵ou go out there night after night and lie to them鈥� is how he puts it. When he deliberately swan dives into the orchestra pit during a production of 鈥淎s You Like It,鈥� he becomes a Broadway joke 鈥� a flop-sweat 鈥淪pider-Man.鈥� Miserable, he checks into a high-class rehab facility, where his newfound prattle about 鈥渓osing his craft鈥� finds a fresh audience.聽
When Pacino was interviewed in Toronto at the film鈥檚 premi猫re, he spoke about Simon鈥檚 crackup: 鈥淗e starts to lose it and he wants to go back to peace and to a life, which he鈥檚 never had. Now for some reason there鈥檚 something we find funny about that, an actor wanting to be a real person.鈥�
The central joke in 鈥淭he Humbling,鈥� which was directed with great deadpan flair by Barry Levinson and written by Buck Henry and Michael Zebede, fits Pacino鈥檚 observation: Here is a thoroughgoing actor who can鈥檛 dispel his theatrics even when he is at his most 鈥渞eal.鈥� Wheeled into the hospital after suffering that stage fall, he moans on the gurney and then looks up at the nurse and asks her if she thinks his moan sounded 鈥渂elievable.鈥� Near the end of the film, bereft after a lover walks out on him, he cries out, 鈥淐ome back, come back鈥� and then, out of the blue, 鈥淐ome back, Shane!鈥� Simon is never so much an actor as when he is not acting.
Simon may wish to hide away, but his celebrity precedes him. At the rehab facility he finds himself badgered by Sybil (Nina Arianda), a nut-case society woman who believes her husband molested their daughter and wants Simon to kill him because she once saw Simon play a killer in a movie. For a while, post-rehab, even after Sybil tracks him down at his Connecticut mansion, Simon holds a baffled tenderness for this woman 鈥� a fellow sufferer and over-actor. Simon鈥檚 spirits are so low that he doesn鈥檛 think he deserves to be stalked.
Of the many turns 鈥淭he Humbling鈥� takes, the screwiest is also the most heartfelt. Pegeen (Greta Gerwig), who teaches at a local women鈥檚 college, shows up on Simon鈥檚 doorstep and insinuates herself romantically into his life despite the fact that she鈥檚 gay and half his age and she hasn鈥檛 seen him since her parents acted with him when she was a star-struck 10-year-old. What saves this development from the 鈥渄irty old man鈥� accusations that Roth鈥檚 novel invited is that Pegeen is in charge at all times. For Simon, who regards himself as a 鈥渓ove clich茅,鈥� this relationship fits his fatalism even as it lifts his spirits. 鈥淚 picked the right one,鈥� he says. 鈥淪he鈥檚 bound to leave me.鈥�
One of the reasons I like this movie so much more than 鈥淏irdman,鈥� which was also about a life in the theater, is that, at least until near the end, when it devolves into a reality-game head-scratcher, it doesn鈥檛 take itself tremendously seriously. Movies about theater people are often at their best when massive egos are on full parade 鈥� that is to say, when they鈥檙e funny. I laughed more during this film than at any other I鈥檝e seen in a long time. One scene in particular, when Simon, at the vet, is mistakenly injected with a horse tranquilizer, is a classic. This actor who prizes himself on his thundering diction is bewildered, not altogether unpleasantly, by his newfound slurriness.
All of the actors are at their comic peak. Gerwig, who can be overbearingly raffish, is perfect here. Pegeen is both Simon鈥檚 muse and tormentor. Arianda鈥檚 Sybil has the righteous, bright-eyed conviction of the truly deranged. Perfect, too, are Dianne Wiest and Dan Hedaya as Pegeen鈥檚 aghast parents, and Charles Grodin as Simon鈥檚 exasperated agent, who complains that Simon鈥檚 box-strewn mansion looks as if he just moved into it, even though he鈥檚 lived there for 14 years.聽
This is not one of Pacino鈥檚 over-the-top hoo-ha performances. He鈥檚 startlingly low-key most of the time, almost subterraneanly so. Simon鈥檚 life has become a burlesque, and he takes it all in with a weary aplomb. He discovers there is more to life than acting and, in so doing, he wades into life鈥檚 messiness 鈥� the stuff that acting protected him from.
鈥淭he Humbling,鈥� which is a richer and more comic experience than the novel, wouldn鈥檛 work without a star who loves acting every bit as much as Simon claims to loathe it. Unlike most of his contemporaries (most conspicuously Robert De Niro), Pacino still gets a blast out of acting. His performance in this film about a blocked performer is gloriously unblocked 鈥� a valentine to vanity. Grade: A- (Rated R for sexual material, language, and brief violence.)
