![]() Haley renders Lee’s contemplation of his mortality as a series of surreal flashbacks to his signature role-in a movie called, appropriately, “The Hero”-but with the star in his current state. And that’s about it.īut what Charlotte doesn’t know-what nobody knows-is that Lee has pancreatic cancer, and not much longer to live. ![]() She likes poetry-which “The Hero” drives home by having Charlotte read to Lee from an actual book of poetry. (She also happens to look a lot like his daughter, which the script from Haley and Marc Basch never mentions.) There’s just not a lot to this character, so their connection never makes sense. And it’s not even unlikely because she’s half his age. During one of those hazy visits, Lee meets another customer of Jeremy’s: the sexy, saucy Charlotte ( Laura Prepon), with whom he begins an unlikely romance. Occasionally, Lee ventures out to see his only friend, Jeremy ( Nick Offerman), a former TV series co-star who also happens to be his drug dealer. He has a cordial relationship with his ex-wife (Elliott’s real-life wife, Katharine Ross, lovely in just a couple of scenes) but he’s estranged from his daughter ( Krysten Ritter in an underwritten role) and struggles to reconnect with her. Lee mainly stays holed up in his rustic Malibu canyon home, smoking weed and drinking bourbon. The awareness of and affectionate toying with Elliott’s real-life persona is one of its primary charms, but that only lasts for so long. These days, he gets by as a voiceover artist when we first meet Lee, he’s in a recording booth repeating the same inane line about barbecue sauce into a microphone ad infinitum. He’s been riding on that success, culturally and financially, with diminishing returns ever since. He stars as Lee Hayden, an aging, ailing movie star whose best work was in a Western that came out 40 years ago. And yet, Elliott’s mere presence makes the film more watchable than it should be for longer than you’d expect. And the repetition of a series of remorseful, dreamlike images from the past does nothing to increase their poignancy. ![]() ![]() “The Hero” is loaded with clichés about the fickle nature of Hollywood, May-December romances and last shots at happiness later in life. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |