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nobody’s fool
Miss Beryl: Doesn’t it bother you that you haven’t done more with the life God gave you? My introduction to the work of Richard Russo was pretty inauspicious. I was sixteen, and hanging out with a friend whose little brother had a habit of recording the sex scenes from every movie he watched onto a stack of VHS cassettes that he hid in his bedroom. I was teaching my buddy how to drive a stick-shift; he’d been given a used Fiero for his sixteenth birthday, and couldn’t grasp the concept of shifting when necessary. I never could convince him that he didn’t have to shift through all five gears as quickly as possible, which meant he’d lurch down the streets of his neighborhood, in fifth gear, at about fifteen miles per hour. I think he killed the car eventually. Anyway, we got back to his house and caught his brother in a compromising position. Frozen on the family TV was Melanie Griffth, sweatshirt lifted high. Like I said: pretty inauspicious. Several years later I got around to picking Russo’s novel, Nobody’s Fool, not really expecting much of anything. It turned out to be a truly wonderful book, and I plowed through Russo’s entire bibliography before I remembered the film adaptation. Nobody’s Fool is the story of Sully (Paul Newman), a man so far past his prime he’s coming around to it again. He rents a room from his eighth-grade teacher (Jessica Tandy) in North Bath, an upstate New York town that has seen better decades, and gets by doing odd jobs. He’s better friends with his ex-wife’s husband than with his ex-wife, and is at constant odds with his on-again/off-again employer, Carl Roebuck (Bruce Willis), over paychecks and Roebuck’s wife, Toby (Melanie Griffith), whose gutters Sully can’t keep his mind out of. This is Sully’s life: working when he can, drinking, and being a lovable rascal. And all of this is threatened when Sully’s long-estranged son, Peter (Dylan Walsh), comes to town for Thanksgiving with his own family, and begins exhibiting signs of following in his old man’s missteps. Richard Russo’s novel is carefully adapted by Robert Benton, who has since collaborated with Russo twice more (Twilight, The Ice Harvest). But both men’s best is on display here. The movie feels extraordinarily lived-in by its characters; it draws you into its reality with its comfortable, easy performances. Russo has always been adept at writing small towns with deep and believable pasts, and Robert Benton translates this so well you’d think Russo wrote it himself.
Paul Newman is predictably good as Sully, who at the beginning of the film is a worn-down bachelor whose life is never as stable as he’d like it to be (even though he seems to like it that way), and by the end is discovering just how much he has left to give, and to whom. Newman seems so much at home in the role that it was no surprise when he signed on for the adaptation of Russo’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Empire Falls, last year. This was Jessica Tandy’s final movie, and it was dedicated to her memory. She’s quite good in her role as Miss Beryl, Sully’s landlord, former teacher, and conscience. Over the years she’s become Sully’s family, and she and Newman are very convincing at communicating that kind of history:
The two of them are joined in the movie by a number of familiar faces: Bruce Willis is in low-profile mode as Carl, Sully’s cocksure, arrogant boss, and throughout the film he and Sully maintain a laid-back rivalry over a snowblower. Carl’s perpetually amused by Sully’s flirtations with Carl’s wife, Toby:
Surprisingly enough, Melanie Griffith steals several scenes as Toby Roebuck (and not just when she’s flashing her rack). This was the end of the road for Melanie Griffith. She hasn’t been this appealing since. The rest of the cast is superb: Pruitt Taylor Vince is Sully’s awestruck partner, Rub Squeers; when Sully’s son returns to town, Rub takes it as a personal affront. Josef Sommer is a great weak-spined villain, and Philip Seymour Hoffman has a hilarious bit part as the local police officer, who has a personal vendetta against Sully. The weakest of the cast is Dylan Walsh, as Sully’s prodigal son, but he gets the job done, and that’s the worst I can say about anybody in this movie. I could keep writing, but when it comes right down to it, I don’t have to. The tagline printed on the movie poster — Worn to perfection — describes the film better and more succinctly than I ever could. I guess I could’ve foregone reviewing this one. Sorry about that.
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September 18th, 2006 at 7:03 am
Nice review. Nobody’s Fool is one of my favorite movies of all time. Part of it is I grew up near the area. The movie reminds me a lot of the pace and people of my childhood. It also happens to be a first rate movie. Newman is stellar and, I agree, Griffith gives a wonderful performance. The screenplay is a thing of beauty.
Nobody’s Fool would be a movie I’d point to that feels like me. That is, it resonates with my flow and personality. Wonder Boys would be another along those lines…. Thanks for the review.
April 27th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Good review. I found your site from an old
Writer’s Digest that I bought at a library sale.
Have you read or seen Empire Falls? I loved the mini-series / movie and flipped over the book.
Thanks for such a nice place to kill some time.
April 27th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I’ve both read and seen Empire Falls. Loved the book; was disappointed by my own high hopes for the adaptation. I thought that Newman did a fine job, but that Harris, much as I like his work, was sorely miscast.
August 2nd, 2009 at 7:26 pm
thanks for sharing this great post.