"Andrezej Krakowski has crafted a truly remarkable drama that serves as a high point for both Ben Gazzara and David Moscow’s careers. They make a lofty premise seem entirely plausible and human.
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Movies about retired Oscar winners are hard to pull off. In this day and age, we've become too familiar with any given personality, and when they play a hyped-up version of themselves on-screen, it comes with a certain amount of disbelief and disconnect. We can always sense the true face hiding behind that thin plastic mask. When it comes to small, independently produced features about actors and Hollywood, its even worse. Why? Because its difficult to buy any low rent direct-to-DVD house thespian as an award winning force to be reckoned with. Andrezej Krakowski's film Looking For Palladin sidesteps these cliches by employing Ben Gazzara as a supposed two-time Academy Award recipient.
An Italian actor that has appeared in numerous films throughout the years, Gazzara isn't as well known as some of his contemporaries. Especially by the younger crowd of Cineplex dwellers that currently rule the box office. He has contributed great work to some important films during the last four decades. He may be best known for his television appearances having won an Emmy for the 2002 telemovie Hysterical Blindness. He's garnered far too many award nominations to count on both hands. Heck, he even nabbed a Razzie nod for his appearance in Patrick Swayze's 1989 mega-awesome Road House (which the actor claims is the most played of his films). Because of this studied resume, the actor's grown quite familiar with the stated persona of a once-praised artist now living mostly out of the spotlight. He brings a weighted gravitas to the role of Jack Palladin most actors wouldn't be able to discover within themselves. We truly believe that this dude was the shit back in the Sixties. We believe he won two back-to-back Academy Awards. We believe that this is where he'd be now, living in seclusion, away from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood but still harboring an affinity for it.
No matter how good Krakowski's script may have read on the page, this entire story would have faltered and died in the hands of a less capable actor. Why? Because we have to believe whole-heartedly in this man's history and backstory to make the rest of the film work. After bowing out of Hollywood, Gazzara's Palladin has tucked himself away in a small, friendly Guatemalan village. He's taken a line-cook job in a small diner owned by another American named Arnie (The Soprano's Vincent Pastore), and he seems quite content with his meager little life. Three screenwriters have happened upon him in the restaurant, and they playfully claim to be writing a small, independant film for the aging auteur (not unlike the one we are watching). He agrees to appear in this project, smiling and happy to still have fans genuinely interested in his craft.
Then along comes some bigger (if not brighter) news. David Moscow (who you may remember as young Tom Hanks in Penny Marshall's Big) plays arrogant Hollywood talent agent Josh Ross, and he does it with insipid perfection. As soon as this guy gets off the bus in Guatemala, we know he has sanity issues, and a bad self-image. Arriving in fuax-Gucci, which the locals don't mind pointing out, the brash ass attempts to get a rental car only to find his credit cards have been denied. For a long stretch of time, he stands outside city hall talking into his hands-free cellular headset. At just the right angle, he appears to the villagers as a screaming loon just released from the asylum. It's pretty darn near close to the truth. Ross has been sent to find Palladin, which proves to be a harder task than expected.
While everyone in town knows Palladin's location, they certainly don't make it easy on Ross. Our intrepid agent is sent looking all over the place for the actor, and he certainly isn't helped along by the villagers at all. The poor guy goes door to door, being turned away at every juncture. When he eventually happens upon the legendary actor, whose headshot he's held tight in his hand throughout this ordeal, Ross fails to recognize him. Eventually, the two meet, and its quite purposely uneventful. It seems that Ross has a million dollar offer for this retired performer. Some big shot Hollywood producers want Palladin to appear in a sequel to one of his past films, in which he died on screen. "It doesn't matter," Ross says, "It'll make sense."
Palladin wants to do it. It sounds pretty promising, and the money is right. But his lover doesn't agree, as it would usurp his screenwriting pals plans to write him a real bonafide comeback. It's a late-in-life struggle to cope with one's own Id and the potential of furthering a flawless legacy. But then the real reason Josh has appeared in Guatemala is let out of the bag, and the film takes an unexpected turn for the better. High drama ensues as secrets are revealed, and relationships start to form in the most unlikely of places. It seems that Ross doesn't really care about the movie offer, even though it means a nice kick back in his own pocket. He's discovered that Palladin is harboring secrets that may lead to a stunning revelation about the agent's own life. And he's used this comeback as an excuse to find out the answers.
What Andrzej Krakowski has created is a unique and truthful look at fame and the effects it has on one's livelihood. His characters are forced out of seclusion, and must deal with their own sorted past lives before moving one further step into the future. It's a careful balancing act that may have toppled over had he not invested such time in finding two perfect actors to fulfill these leading roles. Looking For Palladin? It gets a Whoop-doo!
(All of B. Alan Orange's reviews are based on the Boo! or Whoop-doo! evaluation system.)
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