The Angriest Man in Brooklyn (2014)
Almost the last movie with Robin Williams, and it changed slightly how I looked at it. For one thing, the character he plays is dying. And the anger he has (from the title) reveals a harder, sadder edge to the comedian.
To say he isn't very funny here isn't really helpful—it's a serious role. Though he does pull out a couple zingers that may or may not have been scripted. Mostly he's an actor, and a pretty good one, but there is nothing brilliant happening here from him, or from the surrounding cast. A bigger problem still is the script, a kind of canned problem film where two unlikely people clash and have to make some situation correct itself for everyone's sake. It's forced, and not very well written.
The co-star, the young woman doctor who ends up in the middle of the crisis through bad luck, is Mila Kunis, and she struggles to be convincing both as a doctor and as the leading counterweight to Williams (who if nothing else is Robin Williams, which has screen heft).
Director Phil Alden Robinson is clearly out of his waters here—he's more of a steady screenwriter with one so-so movie in the can before this one—and so all the pieces in this romantic tragi-comedy are a bit out of square. The first of these is a decision (I assume the director's) to use voice over narration by the two leads, and if Williams is passable at best, Kunis sounds like a child learning to read her script. Weirdly avoidable stuff.
Okay, it's fun, I'm sure, and if you want a diversion from heavier stuff, and you like Williams, and you like New York City, you might just have a good time. Without all of that, be wary.
Almost the last movie with Robin Williams, and it changed slightly how I looked at it. For one thing, the character he plays is dying. And the anger he has (from the title) reveals a harder, sadder edge to the comedian.
To say he isn't very funny here isn't really helpful—it's a serious role. Though he does pull out a couple zingers that may or may not have been scripted. Mostly he's an actor, and a pretty good one, but there is nothing brilliant happening here from him, or from the surrounding cast. A bigger problem still is the script, a kind of canned problem film where two unlikely people clash and have to make some situation correct itself for everyone's sake. It's forced, and not very well written.
The co-star, the young woman doctor who ends up in the middle of the crisis through bad luck, is Mila Kunis, and she struggles to be convincing both as a doctor and as the leading counterweight to Williams (who if nothing else is Robin Williams, which has screen heft).
Director Phil Alden Robinson is clearly out of his waters here—he's more of a steady screenwriter with one so-so movie in the can before this one—and so all the pieces in this romantic tragi-comedy are a bit out of square. The first of these is a decision (I assume the director's) to use voice over narration by the two leads, and if Williams is passable at best, Kunis sounds like a child learning to read her script. Weirdly avoidable stuff.
Okay, it's fun, I'm sure, and if you want a diversion from heavier stuff, and you like Williams, and you like New York City, you might just have a good time. Without all of that, be wary.