Danny Collins

— Some movies just start with a clever premise and “Danny Collins” is one of them, although it’s not as imaginative as something like “Shakespeare In Love” or even “Rumor Has It”, it does have a slight basis in reality. In this film, a geriatric rock star who hasn’t written a new song in decades but can still sell out concerts because his audience has aged with him, discovers a letter from John Lennon which might have changed his life if he’d received it when it was written forty years earlier. Al Pacino is doing his twinkly-eyed/bleary-eyed, likeable but flawed and broken role but let’s face it, he’s always worth seeing—he can even make a bad role look better and this is a better than bad role. He sets out to change his life and does. Christopher Plummer, as his best friend and manager, is wonderful, with all the best lines in the film. Annette Banning vaguely recreates her “An American President” role but, with Dan Fogelman writing the screenplay instead of Aaron Sorkin, the banter isn’t as well written, and she’s left nervously laughing a little too much. There’s something sappy about it, but with these actors it’s still a tale of acceptance and love that’s worth seeing. It’s not a great movie, but it’s a good one.

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[2015. 106 min. Written and directed by Dan Fogelman. Starring Al Pacino, Annette Bening, Jennifer Garner, Bobby Carnnavale, and Christopher Plummer.]
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/danny-collins-20150319