Directed by: Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini
Starring: Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis
Rating:
How can you make a biopic about a man who has already illustrated his own life story? That was the quandary facing documentary filmmakers Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini when they decided to make a movie about famed curmudgeon Harvey Pekar. Since the 1970s, Pekar has penned a comic book about his life entitled "American Splendor." In it, the Cleveland file clerk recorded observations and frustrations at his everyday routine. The comic made him into an unlikely celebrity; it even paved the way for a series of appearances on Late Night with David Letterman.
Because Pekar has already described his ideas and feelings about his life on the page, a straight documentary would feel somewhat perfunctory. At the same time, making a traditional biopic would go against everything Pekar's work stood for (i.e., he's no phony or sell-out). So Berman and Pulcini made the very clever decision of merging the two cinematic forms. Actor Paul Giamatti plays a character named Harvey Pekar, while the real Pekar narrates the movie and pops up from time to time (along with his wife and some of his co-workers) commenting about his life and the movie in progress. If it sounds too meta for words, it almost is. But because of its subject matter, the approach works, except for one or two scenes where I think the directors push their conceit a little too far.
The first of these moments comes when Giamatti finishes a scene and a voice from off-camera yells "Cut!" The camera then cuts away to reveal Giamatti standing on a soundstage with fellow actor Judah Friedlander (who plays Pekar's co-worker Toby Radloff). The two actors walk through a doorway to their chairs. Meanwhile, downstage of them, the real Pekar and the real Radloff stand around the craft services table chatting. It's a funny moment at first, but the scene doesn't aid the movie in any way. Beyond that, it quickly becomes distracting to see the actors in the upper right portion of the frame. Their placement is too deliberate--it's obvious the directors didn't want them front and center, but they wanted the audience too know they were there. This tactic comes dangerously close to upsetting the whole film. It smacks of pretension and, worse still, serves little purpose.
The other problematic scene is the recreation of Pekar's infamous last appearance on the Letterman show. Up until this point, every time he went on the program, the audience is shown the actual clips of his appearances. For some reason though, the directors choose to recreate his last appearance instead of showing the real footage (were they not able to get access to it)? Not only does this deliberately confound the audiences' expectations (and not in a good way) it's not even a convincing recreation of the show. The actor they've got playing Letterman looks nothing like him, even from the back. The sheer artifice of it robs the scene of any emotional impact.
Aside from these two sequences, however, I have no complaints about Pulcini and Berman's approach to the material. I particularly love that they included footage from Pekar's retirement party at the close of the film. That scene is the perfect note to end the movie on because it's really the one moment where Pekar is absolutely himself. He's not talking to the camera about his life or commenting on Giamatti's resemblance to himself (or lack thereof), he's just being himself.
There are a number of other things to praise about the film as well. Giamatti is excellent as Pekar and Hope Davis delivers another wonderful performance as Pekar's third wife Joyce. Berman and Pulcini also accomplish the difficult task of making the humor both pointed and touching at the same time. I do think the movie has been over praised by critics who are amazed that an indie film can be about something besides death or broken suburban families. Splendor is a small character study and that's the level on which it succeeds. Perhaps the amount of hosannas it?s attracting is an indication of how much audiences have missed that kind of movie.
