The Forger - Il falsario

I really liked this movie despite the criticism against it. It's a story of men's love, more demonstrative than proclaimed. It's not often we get an honest look into the true bonds across generations. Feminists may disagree, but I see no wrong with celebrating either sex's strengths and shortcomings. It's an honest introspective with a bit of sensationalism for entertainment; I feel it was very tastefully done.

John Travolta's life made him perfect for this role. I won't dwell on it but he is phenomenal without ever being over the top. There wasn't a bad act in the bunch, from leads to support and there are a number of genuinely heartwarming and hilarious moments making this film a top class choice you won't regret seeing.

The Forger, yet pretty forgettable, is still quite an involving drama, with an excellent performance from Travolta. The Forger offers little surprises and sits between good and fair. Travolta an ex con, is released early from prison, to be with his cancer ridden son, who probably has nine months to live. There's a catch. He has to forge a painting for these bad scummy dudes. Travolta kicks arse in this too, like when he's onset by these thugs, as if to remind him to do his job, or he's back in the clink. Travolta separated from his drug addicted wife, takes hos son to see her. This scenario was very reminiscent of that one in The Fourth Wish, where the actress here was excellent, up there wit Travolta. So is Christopher Plummer as the grandad, creating a hell of a interesting old guy character character, putting his magic touch of acting to it, like Travolta does with that paintbrush. The son too, is awesome, bringing a manifold of emotions with such realism and naturalism. One surprise is near the start, when Travolta's in that club, and is made the skank woman for a cop, which I didn't. Though quite a worthwhile drama, it's one you throw away after seeing it. How Travolta screws the bad dudes with his plan was very predictable, and there are other moments too. The final scene borders on tear jerking territory, so have those tissues ready.

"If you had one wish, what would you wish for?" Raymond (Travolta) is tired of being in prison and will do anything to get out. He finally finds a way, by making a deal with a criminal. If they let him out he must pull of an impossible heist in return. Backed into a corner Raymond, his father (Plummer) and his son must do the impossible or face dire consequences. This is a movie I was looking forward to. It sounded interesting and I love heist movies. I am not a huge fan of Travolta but I was still excited about this. I was disappointed. This was really just a paint by numbers movie with nothing all that new or original. You can see the end coming a mile away and that takes all the fun out of the movie. Some people may like this but I was pretty disappointed. Overall, not as good as I hoped. The Best Offer was a way better movie. I give this a C+.

'The Forger' is a strange film in a way. It feels like it's trying to cover every genre at once from thriller to action to comedy to drama. They're all there but the film never takes the time to focus on one of them in particular and I think that holds it back. At times John Travolta's character is shown to be a tough man capable of fighting 6 men at once with ease. And yet this fact is only really useful to that scene and not in any other way to the story. There's a dramatic element holding the plot together which is Travolta's son having cancer, but even with this being the driving force behind everything it still feels half done. Then there's the art heist which you would imagine to be the crux of the entire thing, but this too feels like a tacked on plot piece simply there to give the film a title and a hint of excitement to an otherwise potentially dull story. Despite the balance being off though it's quite a watchable movie.

Travolta is looking old and worn down it has to be said. He looked very far from a man capable of taking on 6 large men in a fight. His performance, at least dramatically, was quite good however as you would expect with him of course having a close association with the lose of his son five years previously. He did struggle a bit with the Boston accent, with it appearing and disappearing from scene to scene. The rest of the cast held things together but were nothing memorable. I think a few touch ups of the script structure and this could have been quite a sleeper hit. Even as it it's not all that bad of a watch.

"You ever going to Tahiti like Paul Gauguin? I don't know."

If there's something Travolta remained loyal to, then surely it's his distinctive, sad look. Ever since I saw him the first time appearing in "Saturday Night Fever" (ages ago), he uses that sad expression. It always looks as if he's going to burst out in tears. And the movie"The Forger" is substantively perfect for retrieving that typical facial expression at the right time. A film about a convicted forger who turned his back at his former profession. And at the same time he's a concerned father who would do anything to be with his son the short time that's left. And that's where this movie fails a bit. Does the emphasis lie on the father-son relationship or was it the intention to make a crime story? The final result is a mix of these two, with the result that both aspects feel like semi-finished.

Raymond J. Cutter (John Travolta) is a notorious forger of art works and is about to be released earlier because of a deal with a thug called Keegan (Anson Mount). In this way he can spend some time with his son Will (Tye Sheridan), a petite teenager whose future doesn't look so rosy after they've discovered a brain tumor. To say the very least, the relationship between Will and his father isn't too good. Also between Raymond and his father (Christopher Plummer), who took care of Will during Raymond's absence, there are some disputes. The additional problem is that Keegan expects something in return from Raymond, namely forging a valuable, world famous painting from Monet.

Now, I'm not an art expert but I don't think you can forge a Monet painting in such a short time period. I'm sure you don't really need high-tech methods to determine from the outset if the painting hanging on the wall is authentic or recently painted. But my gut feeling says that this aspect of "The Forger" is irrelevant and that it's just used as an entertaining way to introduce the father-son relationship. Would Travolta be a professional dancer in this film, and he and his son had to participate in a renowned competition together (where Travolta could show his famous 70s dance moves once again) this would have yielded the same result. Commercially, the result would probably be disappointing. So we throw in a bit of mystery and crime (where Travolta can demonstrate his tough side again and beat up some bouncers with a baseball bat) to make it more attractive.

Although it looks a lot like a typical movie, at times the acting transcends the average. Especially the moments between father and son are beautifully played with vulnerability and regret getting the upper hand. That it eventually turns into a collaboration between father and son, is a bit far-fetched. Plummer also shines at times and shows he's perfectly suited for a character part. Even Travolta demonstrates that he has more to offer than just watching sad all the time. The loss of his son Jett most likely has something to do with his rendition looking so realistic. Maybe he decided to give this role a try as a therapeutic decision, in order to put a painful period in the past.

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