Themes: Fathers and Sons, Small-Town Life, Redemption
Main Cast: Paul Newman, Jessica Tandy, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, Dylan Walsh
Release Year: 1994
Country: US
Run Time: 110 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Paul Newman earned an Oscar nomination (and won citations from the New York Film Critics Circle and the Berlin International Film Festival) for his performance in this well-drawn comedy-drama. Sully (Newman) is a 60-year-old man who emotionally seems to have never quite emerged from adolescence; scraping by on part-time work in construction, Sully has built a life around avoiding responsibility. He hasn't spoken with his ex-wife (Elizabeth Wilson) in years, he lives in a rooming house owned by his eighth-grade teacher Mrs. Beryl (Jessica Tandy), his best friend is a mildly retarded handyman, Rub (Pruitt Taylor Vince), and he has a crush on Toby (Melanie Griffith), who is half his age and married to Carl (Bruce Willis), who sometimes gives him work. One day, Sully nearly runs into his son Peter (Dylan Walsh) and discovers that he has a grandson he never knew about; for the first time, Sully finds himself thinking that he ought to start behaving like a grown-up -- or at least get to know his family before it's too late. Nobody's Fool also features Gene Saks as Sully's lawyer Wirf, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as the overly-enthusiastic Officer Raymer. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
The first of two infuriatingly overlooked collaborations in the 1990s between writer/director Robert Benton and actor Paul Newman, this comedy-drama based on a novel by Richard Russo is a cinematic treasure that deserves to be regarded as a late-career classic from both men. In the role of irresponsible handyman Sully, Newman gives what has to be labeled one of his finest performances. His is an extremely tough character to play: a ne'er-do-well reforming before the audience's eyes, an evolving rascal whose outer debility reflects his fractured inner life, and his unwavering sense of humor his thinly disguised heart of gold. He is one of the "grotesques" of Sherwood Anderson or Flannery O'Connor, except that he's every bit as hilarious as he is tragic. The actor has never been better, chewing the scenery with gusto and sincerely seeming to enjoy every minute of it. Benton's script is a masterpiece of comic timing replete with sharply observed character moments, whipsawing into sobering plot developments and back into good-natured humor with accomplished ease. Maybe these veteran artists are just making it all look too easy, but when even Bruce Willis gives an engaging, witty performance, it's clear that the bar has been raised pretty high by everyone concerned. Co-star Jessica Tandy (in one of her final performances) deserved an Oscar, as did Newman, for this woefully little-seen film that deserved all of the accolades it never received. Nobody's Fool (1994) pulls off a major artistic achievement, blurring the line between fiction and the vagaries of real life, never losing its central philosophic idea that it's all heartbreaking and pretty funny at the same time. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Daniel Davis - Art Director, Scott Ferguson - Associate Producer, Ellen Chenoweth - Casting, Joseph G. Aulisi - Costume Designer, Joe Camp III - First Assistant Director, Robert Benton - Director, John Bloom - Editor, Michael Hausman - Executive Producer, Howard Shore - Composer (Music Score), Danny Michael - Musical Direction/Supervision, David Gropman - Production Designer, John Bailey - Cinematographer, Arlene Donovan - Producer, Scott Rudin - Producer, Gretchen Rau - Set Designer, Robert Benton - Screenwriter, Richard Russo - Book Author
The setting for both the book and movie, the upstate New York village of North Bath, is based on the village of Ballston Spa, in Saratoga County.
Plot summary
Donald "Sully" Sullivan (played by Newman) is something of an oddball in the small village of North Bath, New York. He free-lances in the construction business, often at odds with Carl Roebuck (Willis), a local businessman whose wife Toby (Griffith) he openly flirts with at every opportunity.
Sully is a tenant in the home of Miss Beryl (Tandy), whose son strongly urges her to kick the boarder out. Family complications of his own develop for Sully with a visit in town from Peter, his estranged son (Walsh). While they reconstruct their relationship, Sully strikes up a new one with his young grandson.
Jailed for punching a police officer (Hoffman) who has been persecuting him, Sully's luck seems to be all bad. But in turn his son and grandson warm up to him, his trifecta hits and even the lovely Toby expresses a willingness to leave Carl and run away with him.
In the end, Sully is pretty much back where he began, boarding at Miss Beryl's, but this time the picture of contentment.
