Review: Boulevard

Robin Williams stars as Nolan, a mild-mannered 60 year-old bank clerk living a comfortable existence with long-time wife Joy (Kathy Baker). Or so it seems. For while Nolan and Joy both enjoy the finer things in life (a shared passion for arthouse cinema, for instance), something is clearly missing in their rather comfortable, ‘safe’ marriage. They sleep separately, for instance and seem more like good friends than anything else. We find out what that missing piece of the puzzle is when Nolan makes a sudden detour one night to pick up male prostitute Leo (Roberto Aguire). Although Nolan seems to have little to no interest in sexual intimacy of any kind (he seems to want affection and emotional closeness with another man, more than anything sexual), it’s nonetheless obvious that he is a long-closeted gay man. Like a giddy teenager in love he starts to become obsessed with the younger stud, who in turn tries to make it clear that he’s only in it for the money. Meanwhile, Joy starts to tire of Nolan’s late arrivals home and his private life eventually (and embarrassingly) spills over into a more public sphere. Bob Odenkirk plays Nolan’s long-time best friend, who becomes concerned when he starts acting out of turn and sporting injuries to his face after an altercation with Leo’s pimp.

 

A lot of us were very fond of the late Robin Williams, but it’s true that when Williams died, he hadn’t had a hit for quite a while. “One Hour Photo” and “Insomnia” were a lot longer ago than you probably think. However, he did give one last terrific performance in this 2015 Dito Montiel (The mediocre crime flicks “The Son of No One” and “Empire State”) flick. In his last dramatic role, Williams and the forever underrated Kathy Baker are the whole show in this frankly rather slight, familiar, but also not at all uninteresting film. Scripted by Douglas Soesbe (whose scarce output has previously been a handful of TV movies), this is a bit old-hat, but a sensitive and sincere Williams absolutely nails this character’s almost pathetic nervousness and inability to hide his true self any longer. This guy has been living a lie for a very long time, and he’s nervous, scared, excited, and elated all at once. There’s something incredibly sad and slightly pathetic in that Williams’ 60ish character feels like he can only be himself with a male prostitute, and he makes the embarrassing mistake of falling in love. Your heart breaks for the guy, even though you kinda wish he’d wise up to the obvious business transaction that is taking place. I mean, it can’t be easy for him. He’s 60 years-old and he’s been living a lie for so long, it must be so scary to only now be able to be who he truly is. I couldn’t imagine the difficulty in that, but what’s that quote from “Strictly Ballroom” about a life lived in fear? Nolan’s life is more than half over at this point, and he’s not been living his life at all really, let alone ‘half-lived’.

 

Although she’s not playing much more than a cliché, Kathy Baker really does do a terrific job here. Also to be fair, the character does seem to be wise to who and what she’s dealing with fairly early here, maybe even before the events of the film start. So I was glad that she wasn’t playing a total naïve dunce here, and it’s Baker’s best work in years.

 

A well-made, well-acted version of a story I’m sure you’ve all seen before. It’s a little too slight for my tastes (it’s only 80 minutes long), a little more detail might’ve made this one a much stronger recommendation. If you’re a Robin Williams or Kathy Baker fan however, you owe it to yourself to see this sensitive portrait of a guy struggling within himself as he heads towards (further into?) old age. They’re terrific, the film is solid enough. Just.

 

Rating: B-