Boulevard: O Amor no Retrovisor

Nolan Mack (Robin Williams) is a stiff banker married to Joy (Kathy Baker). They seem devoted but he's been a closeted homosexual for all of his adult life. His father is in a nursing home. His best friend Winston (Bob Odenkirk) has a young girlfriend. He is being primed to be the manager of a new bank branch. One night, he cruises a boulevard and runs over male-prostitute Leo. He tries to take care of Leo who is under the thumb of his pimp Eddie.

Robin Williams does a good job. There is a neediness in Nolan that is both off-putting and compelling. The story is almost quaint by today's standard. The problem is that he could come out to everybody and there wouldn't be any damage. Times have basically passed by this movie. Ten years ago, this would be edgy. Today, his homosexuality could actually help in his banking job. It would probably be a relief to Joy to let the secret out into the open and Winston would throw him a party.

BOULEVARD will always remain a remarkable film despite the fat that it did so poorly in the theaters. Written by Douglas Soesbe and directed with immense subtlety by Dito Montiel, this film is a fitting tribute to one of America's greatest comedians, the star Robert Williams who offers a performance that echoes the lives of many men who elect to lead their lives as gay men in the closet for whatever reason. Williams was 63 years old when he died of apparent suicide following a long struggle with depression and this, his last film, is dedicated to this memory.

Nolan Mack (Robin Williams in a performance so understated that it makes us forget during the film that he was one of the funniest crazies in the comedian arena) is 60, quietly married to an independent Joy Mack (Kathy Baker), quietly working in the same desk in the same back for years, tending his dying father, up for promotion as a bank manager, who turns down a wrong boulevard one evening – a street for hustlers and prostitutes and almost inadvertently picks up a young hustler Leo (Roberto Acquire) and begins a 'relationship' with him, supporting him financially and with attempts to find work for him, but never having a physically consummated act – just being in the hustler's presence is enough. We discover that Nolan is gay and has known since he was twelve but elected to never acted out on it. He has a close friend Winston (an Excellent Bob Odenkirk) with whom he communicates but never admits to anyone except his barely conscious father that he is gay. How he deals with his new discovery of the life for which he has yearned is the manner in which the film plays out – his confession to Joy, the rejection by Leo who has his own interpersonal relationship issues and flaws (a very impressive bit of writing that shows the insecurities of a hustler's mindset), and the trauma that finally exposes his real identity makes for a deeply moving though very quiet story.

The film, in retrospect, seems an homage to the other side of the comedy mask Robin Williams wore. In many ways it is his Ave Atque Vale. Sensitive, subtle, deep, and heart- wrenchingly real, it is a fine yet sad way to say goodbye to Robin Williams.

It's been nearly a year since we lost Robin Williams to a long-standing bout of depression that eventually led to his suicide. This led to an enormous outcry of grief all over the celebrity and social media world from those who had grown up on his movies, television and standup and caused many to reflect on this talent that we had perhaps taken for granted. No one can deny that his movies weren't always diamonds, but his work in them was almost always admirable and memorable. The fact that he spent the last couple of years of his life giving great performances in terrible little-seen direct to VOD films ("The Angriest Man In Brooklyn", "A Merry Friggin' Christmas"), with the occasional cameo in something truly awful ("The Big Wedding"), is a rather tragic thought. But fortunately, with Dito Montiel's newly released film Boulevard, Williams goes out strong, if not quite on top. Williams plays Nolan, a man who's stuck in your typical indie-film marriage, i.e. loveless. He's friendly and cordial with his wife, but is clearly missing something vital. One night he's driving home and spots a group of gay hookers on the sidewalk and after nearly accidentally running one over, he befriends him and starts to confront his closeted homosexuality. He gets advice from his friend Winston, played by Bob Odenkirk, who brings all the levity and spontaneity that you'd hope for from the guy who plays Saul Goodman in a role that could have felt a tad superfluous. He's clearly only in the movie to give Nolan a person off which to bounce his thoughts, but with an actor like Odenkirk in the role, it's hard to complain about such matters. If you feel like you've seen this film before, you probably have. We've seen this suburbia set-up many times over the last couple of decades, so when a film goes for this, you really have to count on strong performances and interesting surprises to make it worth your while. Thanks to Williams' tender, vulnerable, aching performance, the film always stays on the side of watchable, and often fascinating. An electronic synthesizer score often tends to call too much attention to itself and distract from the fine performances by not just Williams, but also Roberto Aguire as Leo, the young man whom Nolan befriends. Fortunately though, once the film firmly establishes what it's about, such distracting little director quirks either ceased altogether, or just stopped bothering me. Certainly for someone like me, a huge fan of his work, it's impossible to watch Williams play such a sad, morose character and not be reminded of what happened shortly after this film was finished. It's just unavoidable. But thankfully, that would just be me reading too much into the story. The man was an actor, and an excellent one at that. Remove all of the comedies from his resume, and you're still left with one of the most impressive collections of dramatic performances in recent memory. This film is no exception. Every time he smiles to avoid confronting the pain and confusion that Nolan feels so strongly, we don't question him in the slightest bit. When we see him look at Leo with his expression of sorrow and pity, it's impossible not to feel right there with him. It may not be best film of Williams' career, and it's a real shame that he never experienced the ultra renaissance that I'm sure was on the horizon for him, but as a film for an actor of this stature to go out on, he could have done much worse than "Boulevard". Grade: B

"Sometimes it's nice to be somewhere else." Nolan (Williams) has a great wife and a huge promotion coming at his job. He has everything going for him, but he has been keeping a secret from everyone his whole life. When he meets Leo (Aguire) he finally finds a way to be himself, but he still struggles with revealing himself. There are some movies that are made better by casting choices. There are some things that a person is the perfect choice for and you can't imagine watching it without them (Gandolfini in the Sopranos). This movie is the rare combination of those plus real world events that makes the movie actually transcend the screen and makes it feel more real and it has that much more of an impact. In this movie Robin Williams plays a character that struggle with something that he has to keep hidden from everyone while trying to be who they want him to be. The fact that he himself was trying to hide depression from everyone while trying to still be "Robin Williams" really adds an extra dimension to the character and makes the movie all the more emotional. The movie itself if just OK, but the real world events are really what makes this a movie to watch. Overall, very poetic that this is the final live action Robin Williams movie. It is almost his way of telling us how he was dealing with his problems. For that reason I recommend this. I give this a B+.

Boulevard is not a particularly great movie, and suffers from its utter generic-ness and lack of ambition. The absolute best thing I can say about the film, however, is it contains one of Robin Williams's last acting performances, and in spite of such an average picture, he manages to turn in a fine, very restrained, dramatic performance. The kind we had come to expect from Williams.

The set-up of the story is simple. A bank clerk, named Nolan (played by Robin Williams, lives a pretty standard life. He and his wife (played by Kathy Baker) have set-up their marriage as a way to distract themselves from the outside world. All of this changes one night while driving. Nolan encounters a troubled young man, named Leo (played by Roberto Aguire), and his entire life changes, as he comes to embrace who he really is, and even his own sexuality.

Boulevard is a pretty atypical film. It's well directed by Dito Montiel (who also made Guide To Recognizing Your Saints) and the script is okay, even having some genuine laughs in it. The performances all around, not just Williams, are fine, including Kathy Baker as his wife, Roberto Acquire as the troubled youth he befriends and Bob Odenkirk in a small role as one of his accomplices and friend named Winston. It's really Robin Williams who shines through though. This may not be one of his absolute best performances, but for being one of his final roles, it isn't a bad role either. Williams isn't being manically over the top (overly dramatic) in this film. He's showing the level of restraint that he's usually showed in some of his best roles like Good Will Hunting and Dead Poets Society. For example, when he confronts his wife after missing dinner, instead of screaming and hollering, he tries to calm her down, and is very resourceful as playing it cool.

Boulevard is a rather short film with less than 90 minutes. The director clearly has skill in making a competent picture, but aside from Williams's performance, I wasn't drawn into much of the story. For being one of Robin Williams's last performances, it does make me sad, but either way, it was a good role for him to go out on.