Memories of Me - Das tragisch-komische Leben eines großartigen Versagers

This a great film for all the regular reasons: good acting, good writing, good themes, great production values and very watchable. This movie is a father and son film. But this movie also shows the non-Hollywood public those trials and tribulations of being a struggling (hopefully working) actor. This film also tackles some of the public prejudice against beginning actors and their starting acting gigs in Hollywood. Many people, wrongly make fun of, dismiss and attack starting non-established actors for their commercial and background (extra) work. This is because of the misinformation in the public's collective mis-informed mind. Many if not all major stars, ALL started as background performers. Actors gradually moved up through the chain of career successes. The key is persistence! All actors should be respected for their acting talents! This film does a great job in clearly illustrating how valuable any acting in this profession is worth respecting. A great inside look at the "background" of Hollywood acting and films. A great cameo of Sean Connery in this film from his working at Paramount '88 for the film "Presido". Many thumbs up!

This film proves with JUST TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT that Alan King was capable of a good film career. The story here does not deal with secretive billionaires and their angry mistresses, but with a man who left his family in New York City decades before to pursue a career in Hollywood. But Abe has never been more than a background extra. When his son Abie (Billy Chrystal) is recovering from a heart attack, he goes to Hollywood to see his father for the first time in years. Abie discovers that his father has never even had a real speaking part (the closest is when he was the sixth or seventh man in SPARTACUS to yell "I am Spartacus!"). Naturally, given the shattering effect that Abe's abandonment of the family had, it does not seem to Abie that his father had much to show for it. Abe, who has become part of the Hollywood community (he is usually seen with his fellow extras, but we see he does know Sean Connery by first names). He is reasonably happy - but Abie keeps dismissing him as a hack, not an artist.

The arrival of Abie's girlfriend Lisa (JoBeth Williams) does not help matters at first, but she manages to bridge the anger and contempt that the son feels for his father, and slowly they do find some degrees of similarities. Abie loves playing the trumpet, for example, and does it well. But Abie discovers that there is something physically wrong about his father - a sudden memory problem causing the father to recite a scene he liked from INHERIT THE WIND. The prognosis is grim. So Abie decides to help his father accomplish his greatest wish: get a full scene in a movie with actual dialog.

Most of the comments here have been fairly negative, insisting that it is a very lachrymose and overly sentimental tale. There is no denying that it is (ultimately) a tragic story - but the performances (particularly King as a proud and touchy man, who will not admit that his life has been less than a success) are good for the three leads. King's performance mingled pathos and comedy quite well. Witness the scene where he was trying to choose among his friends for the extras in a science fiction film, where he is dressed in a lobster costume. King shows his sauciness at a self-important assistant director, but he also shows the start of his mental/physical collapse in the same sequence (quite a change of pace). Similarly his interview with the casting director for the speaking part that Abie sneaks into is done with great charm and dignity. It was a first rate performance - and proved that King was an actor.

Okay, the movie really isn't that good but it really does make me wail like a newborn. It's the whole father/son relationship thing that works in this film. I'm not a big fan of Billy Crystal but he's okay in this. Alan King is the real star and he shines pretty bright. Give it a chance.

I think Memories of Me is one of the most under rated movies of 1988. The first movie to be directed by Henry Winkler, I think it's a completely forgotten gem.

Plot In A Paragraph: On his girlfriend's (Jobeth Williams) insistence, following a heart attack, a disgruntled New York doctor (Billy Crystal) tries to make peace with his high- spirited, street-smart and often irritatingly careless father, (Alan King) a failed actor who never quit his dream to be a success, and is called the King Of The Extras.

Billy Crustal is superb, as is Jobeth Williams, but the star of the movie is Alan King as Abe who gets along brilliantly with everyone but his son. Sean Connery pops up in an uncredited cameo as Himself, who stops to have a quick chat with "The King Of The Extras"

Winkler does a fine job of handling the touching moments as well as the funny moments.

It's hard to understand, sometimes, what can go wrong in the relationship between a father and son, when no physical abuse is involved. We know these situations do exist, as it the case presented by this movie that tries hard to presents a situation about the distancing between a son and his father, two people that are much alike.

Billy Crystal, working on the screen play with Eric Roth, try to make us like this story. As directed by Henry Winkler, this dramatic comedy doesn't add anything that one hasn't already seen already. In fact, most of it kept reminding us the work of Neil Simon with all its one liners and glibness.

"Memories of Me" makes a point to salute those unknown people working behind the stars because Abe, the father of this story is a struggling extra in Hollywood. The movie capitalizes on the star turn by Alan King, who plays the father. Billy Crystal underplays the son. Jobeth Williams also appears.

Mr. Winkler has gone for the sentimentality and the result is a film that doesn't go anywhere.