One-Trick Pony

First things first: Paul Simon is a brilliant songwriter, but a lousy actor. He was absolutely dreadful in "Annie Hall," but at least that was a brief performance, clearly done as a lark for Woody Allen.

I'm not sure what, exactly, this movie was supposed to be. Was it a straight drama? A satire on the music business? A conjecture as to what Simon's career would have been like had "Sounds of Silence" been his only hit? All of they above? In any case, it's not a bad movie. Simon's scriptwriting is actually quite a bit more astute than his acting. But mostly, it's a formless vanity project, mostly a vehicle for Simon to show off his formidable guitar playing/songwriting skills...and, it must be said, his 40-year-old body (through plentiful shirtless and open-shirt scenes), which I have to admit is quite impressive, especially given his short stature.

Simon is actually quite sexy in this movie: the sad-sack, world-weary persona he affects (or maybe it's genuine) somehow really works for him. And I loved the inside joke of his character encountering a poster for "The Empire Strikes Back," aka the movie that Simon's then-girlfriend, Carrie Fisher, was starring in around the same time "One Trick Pony" was being filmed.

Blair Brown is perfectly decent as the Simon-equivalent's ex-wife, although Ms. Brown has subsequently said she dislikes the movie and doesn't wish to discuss it.

Perhaps encouraged by his brief appearances in the Rutles "All You Need Is Cash" and probably more pertinently Woody Allen's "Annie Hall", Paul Simon returned to the music industry five years after his last studio album with a new record and this film, which he wrote and acted in. I must admit I didn't see the latter coming, but at.least he doesn't set himself up as the director too.

Simon plays Jonah Levin, a one-hit-wonder with a folk/hippy anti-Vietnam war song from 1967, still on the road today with his band playing small clubs and hoping for a record deal for his new batch of songs. His personal life is a bit of a muck-up, separated from his too-long suffering wife Blair Brown who lives in New York with their kid son on whom he dotes, we first see him in a very Woody-type situation, sharing a bath, a joint and almost certainly a bed with a very young-looking girl and later scoring with the attractive but frustrated middle-aged wife, played by Joan Hackett, of his shallow manager played by Rip Torn. Clearly Simon adheres to the "Good to be Woody"-school of movie screenplay writing.

The narrative, such as it is, entails Jonah having some minor musical differences with his band out on the road, being set up with Torn, who in turn introduces him to, of all people, a very uncomfortable-seeming Lou Reed as a hipster record producer who all but adds a disco beat to Jonah's latest otherwise earnest and low-key material to try to get him back on the charts even if it means dropping hia band from the recording session.

We also see him at a "Salute to the 60's" television special alongside Sam and Dave and the Lovin' Spoonful, both of whom it was nice to see, each singing one of their biggest hits.

Otherwise, bar a few ups and downs with Brown, some goofing around with his kid in Central Park and of course some live musical performances of a handful of the soundtrack songs, there's not what you'd really call a significant story-arc here. Simon's dialogue for himself and his characters rarely seems natural with its cleverness drawing attention to itself, while the interplay with his band-members and his new manager and producer is bogged down by clichés.

The music is nice, not exactly riveting, rather like the movie itself, although the songs are neatly worked into the action, all ten of them not including the 60's protest-song spoof and the guest-shots mentioned earlier. On that subject, it sure was strange to see Simon's band warming up for the B-52's of all people at the beginning.

Undoubtedly something of a vanity project for Simon whose acting is unsurprisingly somewhat self-conscious throughout, he lacks the skill or presence to carry off the lead role here. As a movie, it's a bit of a moribund viewing experience, enlivened, although I'm probably overstating it, by the soundtrack material.

Very definitely one for fans of Simon, although Brown, Torn and Hackett each do a professional job in support.

Paul Simon is a self-conscious, introspective, thoughtful man. These qualities, together with his superb guitar licks, eclectic international tastes, and sweet whispery tenor, have made him one of the musical giants of the 20th century, at least figuratively.

The same qualities don't stand him in good stead as an actor. Unlike other self-conscious performers (Woody Allen comes to mind), he can't effectively emote even as himself - a Simonesque musician named Jonah Levi. He uses his limbs awkwardly, and he always seems to be waiting politely for the other actors to finish their lines so he can get his turn.

I wanted to like this film, because I like Simon and he threw his heart into it. I just couldn't. He's stiff, the script is meandering, and the ending is so abrupt you wonder if you missed something. Even his music is decidedly on the lower side of his career output, and it seems to create gaps in the movie's flow. (Hey, what can the characters do to kill two and a half minutes until the background song ends? How about showing Paul taking out the garbage?) Besides, if you want to hear his music, grab one of his concert tapes and get his "A" output.

I am a HUGE Paul Simon fan, I suppose I'm a bit obsessive, and when I found out about "One Trick Pony" I had to check it out. The music was amazing, as all Paul Simon music is, but the movie lacked in a steady, relevant plot. It was basically, more or less, a clip from the story of Simon's life. Like I said, I'm a bit on the obsessive side when it comes to Paul, and I noticed numerous similarities between Jonah and Simon himself (however, not everything rang true for both.) It was a painful movie to watch, but when one closes their eyes, the music kicks *ehm* butt. Some of the greatest stuff is in it like his, "Late in the Evening" that opens up the show. If you're a Paul Simon fan like me, I suggest, if you're feeling brave and don't have to go through too much trouble, certainly take a look at it. If you can't stand Paul Simon, watching this movie would be putting you through your own personal Hell. I rate the music: 10/10, and the movie 3/10.

One-Trick Pony is a good, very-well written piece of cinema that doesn't get the credit it deserves.

Paul Simon plays the role of the failing musician incredibly accurately, and this can be considered one of the greatest portrayals of such a character that exists. Simon's character is consistent with his real life personality - somewhat flat and disinterested but nonetheless thoughtful and professional.

The soundtrack, of course, is superb given that it consists of hits from Simon's solo career.

Other characters act well, such as Jonah's band, but it's the sheer accuracy of the storyline that holds this film up.