Reuben, Reuben, ou la vie d'artiste

REUBEN, REUBEN ****1/2 Tom Conti's role--Gowan McGland, a philandering Scottish poet suffering from writer's block and a depression--is drinking away his fears and tears in wanting something more. He finds fulfillment, however, on one of his gallivanting book tours when he falls in love with a youthful, spirited college student named Geneva. The impressive turns from Conti, Kelly McGillis (debuting here as Gowan's girlfriend), and Roberts Blossom (as Geneva's grandfather) are a must-see, but it's Julius J. Epstein's screen writing that drives the picture. This film, which opened in New York with a bang but petered into obscurity extremely quickly, will intrigue, humor, and often surprise you. Rated R. 1983

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On paper, a comic fable about a randy, drunken, fading poet sounds like a recipe for disaster, but to the enormous credit of all involved, this film works very well indeed. Obviously a strong central performance is essential in films like this, and Tom Conti provides just that as the bedraggled Scottish writer charming his way into the beds of frustrated New England wives. Although the screenplay is consistently witty from start to finish, it is mainly in the second half of the film that it is also extremely moving. The romance between Conti and Kelly McGillis's young student is as obviously doomed as that of Romeo and Juliet, but just as heartbreaking too. The denouement is as sad and shocking as any in cinematic history, yet this film with its warmth and beauty and insight will surely light a fire in even the coldest of hearts.

Tom Conti,(who was nominated for an Oscar for this role as Gowan Mcland), gives one of the most brilliant acting performances I have ever seen. I was looking forward to more meaty roles from this great actor, but he seems to have disappeared, leaving this film as his greatest legacy. His character is a genius who is out of control, but Conti's talent depicts his situation as comic and tragic at the same time-no small feat-- while being absolutely sympathetic. To today's audiences, the pace may seen slow, but all is redeemed by the ending. This has by far the best ending of any motion picture, ever. The fact that this film is not out on DVD is shameful. Interestingly, this is Kelly McGillis' "introducing" film; she was showcased and it was made clear that she was expected to be a great star. She does shine in this role. The more relevant social commentary is the portrayal of women, after they have lost that flush of young love, tend to become disillusioned. We are left wondering whether Geneva Spofford (McGillis' character) will become like the other sad society women around her. See this movie if you have the chance-it won't disappoint.

This film is probably best known for having launched the screen career of Kelly McGillis, who charmingly and winsomely plays the young female lead in this story, a character whose name is Geneva (she is not Swiss but lives in New England, nor is she a banker). The lead role in this film is played by British actor Tom Conti, who had 24 years of film experience behind him already by this time. He still at this stage had an amazing head of curly hair, like a little boy. Conti has always been a consummate actor, as he proved so spectacularly to a mesmerised British public when he appeared in the remarkable TV series THE GLITTERING PRIZES in 1976, when he became for some time a kind of national cuddly icon. Conti does not play someone called Reuben. Reuben is the name of Kelly McGillis's dog (the real dog's name was Jamie), who plays a crucial role in the film at the ending, which I cannot reveal because of IMDb rules. Conti gives ones of his typically brilliant performances here, albeit of a highly unsympathetic character. He is a serial seducer of women and when he meets McGillis and falls in love for the first time, his habit of non-commitment means that he misses the chance of marrying the girl of his dreams because marrying is just not the sort of thing he wants to do again (having messed up a marriage with a very nice woman the first time round). Conti plays a famous British poet on a lecture and poetry-reading tour of New England, and remember that this is the 1980s when people could still become famous for being poets and they could actually travel round being admired, and rooms full of adoring American women would swoon over them. Conti has insufferable affectations, such as leaving a huge silk pocket handkerchief hanging perilously out of his tweed jacket breast pocket by as much as a foot in length, trailing in the breeze. It is meant to be 'a touch of the poet'. Nobody laughs at his handkerchief, and everybody takes him terribly seriously. He is brilliantly witty and a master of words, entrancing people with his word-play, ironic jokes, endless witticisms, and dazzling verbosity. There is one amazing scene where Conti is persuaded to go to church by Geneva (no, she is not a Calvinist either, but an Episcopalian). He goes up to the altar rail with his hands in his pockets, kneels down, and when the priest comes to him with the host and says: 'The body of Christ', Conti says: 'No thank you, I'm on a diet.' Everything for Conti is an excuse for a joke. The only thing he takes seriously is himself, being hopelessly narcissistic and hence all empty inside. This film is 'kind of a downer', even though it is extraordinarily funny and has an excellent script full of non-stop wit and irony by Julius Epstein and Herman Shumlin, based on a Peter de Vries novel. As a portrait of this type of narcissistic intellectual individual, it is an excellent film, exposing the hollowness of excessive self-love with merciless honesty. It is extremely well directed by Robert Ellis Miller, whose best film in my opinion was the emotionally devastating THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER (1968), which was one of the outstanding films of the 1960s and introduced Sondra Locke as a teenager. It should be mentioned that Tom Conti's performance here was so highly regarded when the film came out that he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor, and he well deserved that recognition.

This movie wasn't just written by Julius Epstein - as executive producer, and with another Epstein co-producing, he clearly midwifed it as well. So this would be a fairly unmediated labour of love from the man who penned Casablanca 40 years earlier, and damn if I don't like it better than Casablanca - if there's one thing I wanted to see it's a portrait of the lapsed poet as an old womanizing souse. Making him a Scot run amuck in New England is another great touch, gives the milieu a specificity you don't see every day. And that's not mentioning Tom Conti's very specific, and brilliant, performance - no wonder he never did anything comparable, he LIVES inside this thing. His hilarious portrayal of the sad-eyed loser Epstein has written him is the opposite of maudlin. As his doomed infatuation with young 'un Kelly McGillis approaches its inevitable demise, you wonder how on earth they are going to wrap things up - redemption would be corny, but despair would be hopeless and wrong. The answer he comes up with is a head-spinner, but it's also a perfect answer to this dilemma, and answers your lingering questions about the movie's name.