Danny Collins comes from the director who brought you Crazy, Stupid, Love and this movie is another charmer in the same vein. As a truly delightful dramedy that thinks it's much edgier than it is, Danny Collins boasts a fabulous cast with great chemistry which becomes a low stakes tale of living your life the best way you can at any age.
Danny Collins (Al Pacino) is a very famous singer who, now in his elder years, has been reduced to singing the same repetitive hits on a tour where the average attendees are 50-60 year old women. When his manager Frank (Christopher Plummer) presents him with a birthday gift of a lost letter written to him from John Lennon almost forty years ago, Danny decides to change his life to the way he thinks it should have been had he gotten that letter originally. This sends him from LA to New Jersey to connect with the grown son he has never met.
Pacino is delightful and fun as the eccentric Collins. Danny is a normal man who let fame and money warp him into the typical aging rock star. In a story like this, you would expect someone like Danny to hit rock bottom, lose everything and then have to build himself back up to a better person and artist. This does not happen as Danny never in fact changes at all- he is just as bombastic, oblivious and creatively shallow as ever by the end of the film. But in a monologue given by the almighty Frank Grubman (Plummer) to Danny's estranged son, Danny is full of flaws but he has the best of hearts. Pacino gives a wonderful performance in a role that you can only describe as adorable and wanting him to be your awesome famous uncle.
Annette Bening plays Mary, the flustered hotel manager in New Jersey where Danny takes up temporary residence. Pacino and her have an easy and fun chemistry that lights up the screen when they are together. Mary starts out as someone Danny pursues and flirts with to her apprehensive delight, but she soon becomes his moral compass and you realize along with him that he may not be ready, or ever be ready to deserve her. Bobby Cannavale (Win Win) and Jennifer Garner (Dallas Buyers Club) give understated and beautiful performances as Danny's son and his pregnant wife. Both of these actors know how to play the straight to Pacino's Collins while also deep-rooting a sense of humanity in the film. The couple also has an adorable seven year old daughter who has the most sober looking case of ADHD ever seen.
Danny Collins wants you to think it is an edgy movie, but it's not. It plays like a family movie and the moral is certainly aimed to that dynamic. If not for the extreme overuse of the f-bomb and the gratuitous female full frontal in the beginning.
Danny Collins (Al Pacino) is a very famous singer who, now in his elder years, has been reduced to singing the same repetitive hits on a tour where the average attendees are 50-60 year old women. When his manager Frank (Christopher Plummer) presents him with a birthday gift of a lost letter written to him from John Lennon almost forty years ago, Danny decides to change his life to the way he thinks it should have been had he gotten that letter originally. This sends him from LA to New Jersey to connect with the grown son he has never met.
Pacino is delightful and fun as the eccentric Collins. Danny is a normal man who let fame and money warp him into the typical aging rock star. In a story like this, you would expect someone like Danny to hit rock bottom, lose everything and then have to build himself back up to a better person and artist. This does not happen as Danny never in fact changes at all- he is just as bombastic, oblivious and creatively shallow as ever by the end of the film. But in a monologue given by the almighty Frank Grubman (Plummer) to Danny's estranged son, Danny is full of flaws but he has the best of hearts. Pacino gives a wonderful performance in a role that you can only describe as adorable and wanting him to be your awesome famous uncle.
Annette Bening plays Mary, the flustered hotel manager in New Jersey where Danny takes up temporary residence. Pacino and her have an easy and fun chemistry that lights up the screen when they are together. Mary starts out as someone Danny pursues and flirts with to her apprehensive delight, but she soon becomes his moral compass and you realize along with him that he may not be ready, or ever be ready to deserve her. Bobby Cannavale (Win Win) and Jennifer Garner (Dallas Buyers Club) give understated and beautiful performances as Danny's son and his pregnant wife. Both of these actors know how to play the straight to Pacino's Collins while also deep-rooting a sense of humanity in the film. The couple also has an adorable seven year old daughter who has the most sober looking case of ADHD ever seen.
Danny Collins wants you to think it is an edgy movie, but it's not. It plays like a family movie and the moral is certainly aimed to that dynamic. If not for the extreme overuse of the f-bomb and the gratuitous female full frontal in the beginning.
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