Barrymore

I saw this at TIFF last Fall and was very disappointed. Although Plummer was wonderful, the film is an overproduced mess that never gets past its bad writing. The choice of director was wrong versus some one that had the biopic chops. The use of flashbacks and added film montages makes the film look cheap and takes away from Plummer. My sense is that this film will not find a distributor as it is sadly boring, slow and dull. This was a case of leave a good Broadway one off alone. Why Plummer would do this is puzzling. He won the Tony and now this is a sluggish tarnished effort. I wanted to like the film given Plummer's ability to command a stage but would bogs the film down is the pacing and cliché dialog. The other problem is that approach and art direction looks like they threw anything they had from the "theatre warehouse" at the film. Producer Garth Drabinsky (now in jail)has the theatrical chops but his return to the dated material and a subject long forgotten was a bad mistake.

Unless you have seen John Barrymore perform, then you probably won't want to see this one. That's because today, very few even know exactly who Barrymore was. Practically everyone who saw him on stage has since died and unless you are an old movie fiend (like me), then you've probably not seen him in films. As for me, I am very familiar with him and his life--so it was natural that I'd get this DVD. But for the average person, I just can't see it being of a lot of interest.

Christopher Plummer plays the great actor in this film. As to the style, it really looks like a one-man play (with a second person offstage speaking a few lines) that has been filmed and released on DVD--and that's exactly what it is. Back in 1997, Plummer starred in the play "Barrymore" and he received the Tony Award for this performance. The play is set just before Barrymore's attempted comeback in 1942--the same year he died from the effects of alcohol.

As to whether or not this seems like John Barrymore, Plummer really doesn't look much like Barrymore. However, he does act like him--with some of the same mannerisms as well as the ability to play a genial drunk--which was what Barrymore generally was. But it's also very sad seeing a man playing a guy who WAS a great actor but who is only a step away from the grave due to his heavy drinking. Memory lapses, an inability to function without liquor and many reminiscences, this is basically what you'll see.

So is it any good? Well, if the film was about 30 or even 45 minutes, it would have been excellent. However, seeing a ruined, drunken wreck of a man talk and talk for 83 minutes is simply too much--even for a John Barrymore or Christopher Plummer fan. It becomes depressing and a bit tedious after a while. Worth seeing for the right person but difficult at the same time due to the subject matter. It's really a shame--Plummer is great in the role and should be commended for his performance.

Christopher Plummer is "Barrymore" in this 2014 filming of the two-person play by William Luce, which was first performed by Plummer in 1996.

In the play, Barrymore has rented a theater in order to rehearse for a backers audition of a Richard III revival. The play had been one of his great triumphs in the theater. He can't remember his lines and is drunk, so he needs the rehearsal. Offstage is a prompter, Frank (John Plumpis) who feeds him lines and puts up with the erratic actor throughout.

During rehearsal, Barrymore confronts his growing up, his marriages, his brother and sister, his friends, his successes and his failures, every once in a while coming out with something that's actually from Richard III, with some other Shakespeare thrown in.

Christopher Plummer is phenomenal. He sounds just like Barrymore, and he is superb at bringing out the humor and pathos of the script, as well as reciting some of the beautiful Shakespearian speeches.

I realize some people didn't care for this, and probably seeing this on stage is a different experience. One poster mentioned that this is "dated material and a subject long forgotten." The name Barrymore is not forgotten, and there's nothing dated about Shakespeare. John Barrymore was a fascinating person, an important part of theater, and a presence in films. And Christopher Plummer is a treasure.

As John Barrymore (Christopher Plummer) reckons with the ravages of his life of excess, he rents an old theater to rehearse for a backer's audition to raise money for a revival of his 1920 Broadway triumph in Richard III.

I am not as familiar with Plummer's work as I should be, or the work of John Barrymore for that matter. But this (almost) one-man show with dirty jokes and running commentary is great. Few films feature just one person (the only other jumping to mind right now is Robert Altman's film on Nixon), but sometimes these are the most powerful, letting the actor test their range.

More people should see this... and I should make a point to see more of Plummer and Barrymore's work.

Christopher Plummer plays John Barrymore, the legendary silent film actor who transitioned into talkie movies in the 1920s & 1930s and starred in legendary films like Grand Hotel & along with Charlie Chaplin was considered by some film historians as the most talented actor in Hollywood during that time period, and of course he is Drew Barrymore's Grandfather. It takes place in 1942, right before John Barrymore died. It is an extremely good movie, I give it 7 of 10 stars, but Christopher Plummer's performance is a Masterpiece and I give his performance 10 of 10 stars. I would recommend this film as it is extremely good, but if you want to see the brilliant acting of Christopher Plummer it's a must see!