Inside Out

How many people, given the opportunity, might be tempted to bolt their doors and draw the blinds and never again emerge from the comfort and complacency of their own homes? That's the basic idea behind this intriguing urban fantasy about the fragile luxury of alienation, starring Elliott Gould as a wealthy, self-sufficient bachelor living a remote controlled life in his Manhattan apartment. He never once ventures outside, at first apparently because he doesn't need to but eventually because he isn't able to, and the character changes with chilling predictability from eccentric to disturbed to disabled as the carpet of his financial security is slowly pulled out from under him. The mood is one of controlled desperation and mounting claustrophobia, all maintained in an economic, undemonstrative screenplay, which more or less keeps silent about its intentions. The viewer is left to fill in the appropriate blanks, something moviegoers aren't challenged to do very often.

******SPOILERS****** From what I can gather from watching the movie "Inside Out" about Jimmy Morgan, Elliott Gould, is that Jimmy led a normal life. Having a wife, Elizabeth, whom he's divorced from, and an 11 year old daughter Heather, Nicole Nourmand. It wasn't until about four years ago when his father died and left to him the position as co-partner with Leo Gross, Dana Elcar, in a company that Jimmy's life started to drastically change.

It seemed that not long after Jimmy was given the responsibility of co-running the business with Leo that he started re-living his second childhood. Even far more disturbing then that Jimmy became seriously agoraphobic, a phobia that causes a person to fear open spaces, and never left his apartment to go outside and mingle with people.

When we first see Jimmy in the movie he's living "The life of Reilly" foolishly spending and gambling away everything that Leo and his father worked so hard for all those years. Because Jimmy wasn't taking care of the business that his father entrusted him with Leo was becoming greatly alarmed with Jimmies irresponsible actions which was endangering the future of the business that they both ran. He started to set up a dummy cooperation, American Unified, where he was the only stock holder and began funneling some $600,000.00 in cash into it without Jimmies knowledge.

Leo knows that Jimmy doesn't bother to read anything that he sends him to sign and that he's only interested in the weekly allowance that he gets from the company to spend and gamble away. This has Leo get Jimmy to unknowingly signs away his share of the business that he's a partner with thus thus leaving Jimmy without having any job or income to support himself. Also because of Jimmies extreme agoraphobia he became more and more obsessed with his gambling on sporting events. It's wasn't that long after a recession hit Wall Street the the money that his father left him in a stock market account dwindled down to almost nothing.

Jimmy runs up a $52,000.00 tab to his bookie who was taking his action with only about $2,000.00 in his account to pay it off. Desperate to pay off his gambling debt Jimmy had to sell everything that he owned to keep the mob, whom his bookie worked for, from breaking his legs or even worse. Jimmy is now left without money, without hope, without a place to live and without any friends to help him in facing the outside world that he shut himself off from for the last four years. And the fear of having to go outside and face that world terrifies Jimmy.

In the movie there were some very poignant episodes with people who Jimmy came in contact with. There was Amy, Jeniffer Tilly, a call-girl who was sent from an agency who Jimmy contacted to entertain him. Amy became very caring and understanding of Jimmy when she saw that he was more interested in her company as a friend and not in sex and treated Amy far better then any of the men that she dealt with.

Then there was Jack, Howard Hessemen, a long time friend of Jimmies who hasn't seen him in years who came in from LA to visit him. Jack, after a short time, realizing what a serious problem Jimmy had tried to get him to go outside in the world with him which resulted in Jimmy almost having a nervous breakdown as well as almost ending their friendship.

There was the homeless man, Timothy Scott, who tried to get out of the freezing cold by staying in the lobby of Jimmies apartment. When he heard Jimmy talking to him through the TV inter-con in the lobby he apologetically offered to leave but Jimmy told him it was all right for him to stay and even ordered from a local deli sandwiches and coffee for him.

And finally there was Jimmies 11 year old daughter Heather that Jimmy would do anything for, Jimmy even bought her a St. Bernard puppy, except go to the football game with her or even go with her outside for a walk in the park. I really think that Elliott Gould's fine performance as a shut-in in the movie "Inside Out" was the main reason that he was cast in the role as Bergstrom, the reclusive but powerful power broker as well as political king maker, in the top HBO series "K Street" some seventeen years later.

Elliott Gould's acting in the movie is the most impressive that I've ever seen from any actor in a movie that I can remember. Gould covered every emotion that a actor can possibly evoke in a movie or play: Anger,fear,love,hate,arrogance, humility,and even comedy all within the 90 minutes of the movie. With Gould doing it as convincingly as it would take any good actor to do it in a dozen movies with a dozen different roles but not all at once. It took the fantasy world that Jimmy built around himself those four years to collapse to finally cure him. And it was the most extensive form of shock treatment ever put on film, without a single volt of electricity.

A highly underrated and overlooked film with Elliott Gould giving a once-in-a-lifetime performance in one of the hardest roles ever given for an actor to portray. Try to see if it's available on VHS or DVD or if it's scheduled to be broadcast on cable-TV and try not to miss it; Believe me the movie is really that good.

Jimmy Morgan lives in a self-contained world: a serious agoraphobic, he never leaves his apartment and his main connection with the world is the telephone. After all, everything he needs is right there or it can be sent for, like his regular call girl. He doesn't have to work because his father left him a large bank account and a half interest in the family business. Jimmy thinks he's well off in his self-imposed version of solitary confinement, but a swift fate hangs over him, for he is a gambling addict and he's been emptying his bank account to pay off his mob-owned bookie. Worse yet, he signs documents he hasn't read and the last one he signed turned control of his share of the business over to his unscrupulous partner Leo, who has siphoned all the money away. Jimmy's only close connection to his family is his adoring 11-year-old daughter, who seems blissfully unaware of her father's deteriorating mental health and looming financial crisis.

All the bad news comes at once, as Jimmy finds he's lost his half of the business and the fact that he owes his bookie $52,000. He knows the mob will do him serious bodily harm if he doesn't come up with the money fast and he's forced to liquidate the entire contents of his apartment, leaving him sitting on the hard floor of a totally empty living room, looking like he's ready to be taken away like the furniture and other valuables he's just lost. In the span of a very short time careless Jimmy, who was too absorbed in his gambling and other pleasures to mind his financial and business affairs, has gone from seemingly prosperous to virtually homeless. The screen fades to black as an unshaven Jimmy, looking like the homeless bum he likely very soon will be, sits on a bench talking to his young daughter, who will soon become another lost item in his life when she moves away with her mother.

Nearly all the characters in Jimmy's orbit are worth mentioning, even though some are heard (over the telephone) but never seen: the ex-wife, who must have been through hell with her lazy, neurotic husband, the male friends who want to help but can't, the hooker who cares for him because of his kindness and crooked partner Leo, who gives a memorable, lashing speech, reminding the irate Jimmy that one who pays no attention to his own business affairs, spends like a drunken sailor and signs contracts he hasn't even read deserves just what he gets.

A tiny but interesting facet of the movie is the homeless man who inhabits the tiny foyer of Jimmy's building. Jimmy even talks to this man via the closed-circuit TV and the intercom and tells the man he can stay where he is overnight to keep out of the cold. The homeless man seems to be symbolic of Jimmy's impending plight and when he disappears you get the feeling that Jimmy won't be long in following him out the door and into the street.

This remarkable movie features a fine cast and an unforgettable performance by Elliott Gould, who deserved an award for this little-known film. I was lucky enough to tape it and wish it would be aired again for the benefit of all who've never seen what Elliott Gould is capable of with material like this.