5/10

In any other year, “The Humbling” would be a genius execution in filmmaking. The reason it doesn’t fully work in 2015 is because it takes a premise about an A-list actor in the twilight of his career, and slowly slipping into insanity. Sound familiar? The movie has a lot of similarities with last year’s “Birdman”, and while it does some things as well, it never does anything better than that piece. “The Humbling” is about an Over the hill stage actor named Simon Axler (Al Pacino) who struggles to find his passion for life again. Near his breaking point, he finds motivation in the form of a young and lustful lesbian Pegeen (Greta Gerwig), but as their relationship heats up, Simon has a hard time keeping up with the youthful Pegeen. As i mentioned already, the film will have a lot of comparisons with it’s Best Picture nominated similar piece, “Birdman”. Those comparisons, while unfair, are mainly because this film takes a lot of concepts from that film and gives them a blurred vision. Pacino is certainly excellent, and this film does serve as a highlight in the later part of his film career. It’s just unfortunate that the themes here are so bizarre and unwelcoming. From a sexual relationship with Axler’s goddaughter, to some of Pegeen’s lesbian lovers coming back to make her life hell. It’s all not necessary, and feels like it’s a story that was forced in there to give it a modern touch. The film does well enough when it’s focusing on the stripping of Axler’s pride from a once prominent actor. His work at the beginning of the film in an empty theater with people on their cell phones during his performance, to a hair plugs commercial that seems to be the only offer coming his way. This all feels very natural to the actors who give us magic that we someday may forget about. I would’ve rather the film focused more on this aspect. Of course, the whole sexual atmosphere may be a figment in Axler’s deteriorating mind. The movie reveals during an informative third act that all of these images and life changing events could be Axler’s very own mind playing tricks on him. It’s never really revealed on a 100% basis what is real and what is fake, but i think that feels natural to the audience who are watching a man’s sanity literally waste away. Director Barry Levinson has always been someone’s work who i closely follow. I do feel that his film work is secondary to his documentary offerings, but “The Humbling” is an effort from him that feels like it has that Levinson touch. The film takes on dark subject matter, but is always cloaked in a dark comedy blanket that earns it’s laughs subtly. Levinson’s biggest problem is that too many of his scenes seem to drown on with soft speaking Pacino acting without flare. It’s a very dialogue driven film, and that is why it’s hard to recommend this piece. The artistic vision is certainly there with lots of Pacino narrating over scenes that seem to be overlapping one after another. This is to represent Axler’s life blurring together and forgetting the little things in between. Pacino is at his best when he is playing off of subject matter that is a little ahead of the generation that he comes from. His interraction off of Gerwig is OK, even if i don’t feel like she perfectly fits in this particular feel of film. It’s also always nice to see some of Hollywood’s most charasmatic actors from Dianne West, to Charles Grodin, to Mandy Patinkin. “The Humbling” is too mellow to really ever grab the audience and make them care. It’s a missed opportunity that muddles the talents of a stacked cast and tests the audience’s patience and care for its uninteresting characters for too long