(Canada, 83 min.)
Dir. Erik Canuel, Writ. Erik Canuel (adaptation), William
Luce (stage play)
Starring: Christopher Plummer, John Plumpis
If you thought that Christopher Plummer was great in Beginners, wait until you see him in Barrymore. It’s truly a treat to watch
Canada’s greatest actor give the performance of a lifetime as John Barrymore.
Plummer reprises his Tony-winning role in this piece of film-mediated drama by
director Erik Canuel (Bon Cop, Bad Cop).
Plummer performs Barrymore in
Toronto’s Elgin Theatre (aka the Visa Screening Room during TIFF) and one sees
quite easily how Plummer would be such a commanding force on stage. Now that
Plummer receives the extra degrees of freedom and intimacy afforded by the
camera, though, it looks like he takes his performance to another
level. It’s like watching the history of acting performed in one 83-minute
feat: from Shakespeare to Vaudeville, from stage to screen, Plummer does it all
and he does it remarkably.
Plummer plays Barrymore in the year 1942. Times are tough
and Barrymore is at war with himself: he has rented a theatre and he plans to
rehearse his great performance as Richard III before reprising it for an
audience. As the years have gone by, however, Barrymore’s stock has waned. He
has also become a vibrant alcoholic, which helps neither his ability to
remember lines nor his capacity to suppress old memories.
Barrymore stumbles in the theatre unaware that he is walking
into a full house. Happy to see so many adoring fans, Barrymore instantly puts
himself at ease, makes a giant Manhattan, and shoots the breeze with the crowd.
He remembers old times and hammily puts on a show that includes anecdotal name-dropping,
punny zingers, and campy show tunes. Barrymore enjoys himself thoroughly until
the audience disappears in a quick cut and he realizes that he is simply an old
coot who is drinking alone.
Then Barrymore’s fateful helper, Frank (John Plumpis), pops
in to help with the line readings. Despite Barrymore’s gusto to reclaim his
great role, he can’t seem to remember his lines. It takes several cues for
Barrymore to work his way through the opening soliloquy of “Now is the winter
of our discontent.” Each line, however, prompts old memories and Barrymore
trades one performance for another. He reminisces about the good old days and,
fueled by more drink, the bad ones, too.
It takes a talented actor to do good Shakespeare (both for
the stage and for the screen). It takes an even greater actor to veer
in and out of character(s) and all the while alternate between iambic
pentameter and drunken bravado. Plummer does several of the great Shakespearean
speeches, including Richard, Hamlet, Jacques, and Prospero. It’s such stuff as
dreams are made on, even more so because one sees how quickly the actor can
change style and persona, yet still retain his character of John Barrymore
throughout. Plummer sells Barrymore’s hammy vaudevillian side, too, by infusing
the campy lines with a twinge of irony, which shows that both the man and the
style are the product of a bygone era.
The range of theatrical references is merely one way in
which Barrymore acknowledges its
roots in the stage. Barrymore
constantly reminds the viewer that it is a show by cutting to Frank in the
wings, or by reverting to a long shot that has Plummer act within the
great scope to the proscenium arch of the stage. By drawing attention to its
theatricality, Barrymore accentuates
the isolation and urgency of its one-man show. Bound to the stage and ruled by
the law of enclosure, Barrymore can’t seem to free himself of the old demons
that permeate his performance.
What is greatest about Barrymore,
though, is Plummer’s negotiation of stage and screen. This is clearly an actor
who understands the limitations, nuances and profits of each medium, and he
manipulates the polarities of stage and screen when it best suits the mindset of
his character. Plummer makes the stagy nature of Barrymore work to the film’s advantage. Rather than succumb to the
suffocation that the fourth wall often imposes on filmed drama, Plummer instead
approaches it and has Barrymore rest his shoulder on the wall and deliver a cheerful
nod and a wink straight to the camera. With the added effect of the close-up,
moreover, Plummer gives his character a hint of agony that one might not see in
a stage production. The depth and range of his performance excels throughout, with
Plummer’s zoomed-out recitals of Barrymore’s volatile raging proving as
effective as the repressed tears that are made visible by the camera.
In this astonishing career-best performance in Barrymore, Christopher Plummer achieves
a rare feat and proves that there is no difference between theatre and film
when it comes to great acting. It took until his eighty-second birthday for
Mr. Plummer to finally win an Academy Award. With any justice, he might have a
second by the time he is eighty-three.
Rating: ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Barrymore screened as part of Cineplex’s Front Row Centre series.
Encore presentations will screen on June 2, 7, and 10. See http://www.cineplex.com/Events
for locations, show times, and tickets.
UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter reports that Barrymore will hit US theatres (NY & LA) on Nov. 15.
UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter reports that Barrymore will hit US theatres (NY & LA) on Nov. 15.