"New York Observer" comment: Al Pacino gave his best performance in recent years.
Everything,
It all originated from that wanton 70s,
Originated from that in the universe of music,
The star that has never fallen: John Winston Lennon.
A personal letter from John Lennon in 1971:
Stay true to your music. Stay true to yourself.
This is a spur to the soul, this is the idol's looking back, at this moment he is looking at you.
Forty years later, when we listen to his music, are we fascinated by the way of life at that time, or that pure attitude? Regarding this movie, I want to unfold a corner of this humorous and unruly warm drama from the perspective of the back in the poster.
The back of John Lennon
In 1971, Danny Collins, who was in his 20s, faced an interview with the editor of "Chime In" in a noisy magazine. The sunlight outside the glass windows was so dazzling that people couldn’t open their eyes. The editor’s hands were filled with smoke, almost Overwhelmed his sight.
Facing this young man with the indignation and perseverance written on his face in the 70s, the editor couldn’t help but sigh twice: "At your age." "Jesus age." At this time, Danny Collins did not understand the famous meaning. He didn't even know what he would face in the future. His heart was the fear of death, he composed like Lennon, and expressed himself with music. The real world is far away from him.
And 40 years later, when he had a reputation, money and women in the real world, he was far away from the music in his heart. The young self had long since disappeared, and the person who Lennon wrote to reply was gone. Now he can no longer have any intersection with Lennon, whether it is creation or spirituality.
After 40 years, for the first time I got the reply from Lennon to himself, Danny Collins began to reflect. Now this is driving a concert tour, using Goldilocks, drinking alcohol, taking drugs, and sitting on a special plane. , He hasn't written a song in 30 years driving a sports car. Even if there are more pianos with your own name inscribed, you can't hear the voice of your inner soul.
So he wanted to regain his former self, face his messy life, face a bad marriage, a lost family, and a ridiculous life. He tried to return to real life, reconnect with his family, and find himself who can still feel life, feel good, and write mood. During this period, countless people ridiculed and rejected him, including his agent, hotel manager, and his biological son and daughter-in-law who had never met.
In order to meet the self in the 1970s again, he began to take notes with the hotel's post-it notes. First, the scattered feelings and mixed thoughts every day, then the granddaughter applying for a private elementary school course, and finally the medical term of the son's cancer chemotherapy, the bits and pieces of notes after reintegrating into life, and finally emerged as a song of his own.
Even with such attempts and efforts, when he was really ready to return to the original singer status, he flinched at the bar live show. There is no moving climax here, just a helpless old man with a strong smile, and under the coaxing of the crowd, he sang the funny fame song: "What's going on? Hei, baby, what's going on?". This song haunts him and laughs at his life like the lines repeated by the hero in "Birdman". Al Pacino said that the director asked him to play this role, just like all his friends want him to continue to play Mike Corleone in "The Godfather", and all he wants to play is Danny Collins.
After a nonsensical farce is over, life has to go on, and the concert tour will be performed. I don’t know how many times the song "What's going on" will have to be sung in this life, and how many times will I be sad in laughter, every time I sing it, It seems that my heart is broken again, one step farther away from what I used to be.
When Danny Collins was sighed for the second time: "At your age!", when he was 60 years old, his agent Frank asked him back, don’t tell me, at your age, you want to start writing songs and look for self.
There is no turning back in time in life. What is lost will never come back. Danny Collins, who is in his 60s, has not been able to be his young self. But he said that one day he will sing that song. Finally, the sports car was given to Hilton's doorman, and he changed to a taxi. After many days, silently went to the hospital to accompany his son to wait for the results of the review, he just recovered his athis age.
In the film you will see how Al Pacino turned himself into a ridiculous old man.
Back view of Danny Collins
People are obsessed with singers of certain eras, just like they can't let go of their youth, for fear that their youth illusion will be shattered, in fact, youth has long gone forever. But people always love to be immersed in such a world, and they like to reappear thousands of times. And some film and television celebrities, they have assumed the role of everyone's youth locker. They can't grow old, they can't be silent, can't change, people don't care about themselves, they only care that the face in the memory is still there when they open the box. When the audience in the audience was already gray-haired and sang "What's going on." with the same old Danny Collins crazy, it was inexplicably funny.
Not everyone in the world is obsessed with celebrities. The children of celebrities are an exception. Danny Collins’s son is prepared to ignore him for the rest of his life. His mother passed away from cancer ten years ago, his daughter just turned 6 years old, and his wife became pregnant again, but he was found to have inherited the mother’s cancer. Life allowed his father to appear at this time, just mocking his incompetence, and he didn’t want to give his father a remedy. Opportunity, but reality made him unable to maintain his dignity.
He never expected his father's back, he naturally resisted, he was resentful, but he could only accept it helplessly. Accepting this ridiculous father, he performed his absurdity comically.
When he saw his father in the clinic again, he was helpless. While waiting for the doctor's results, Danny Collins tried to play the role of a father to comfort his son that everything would be fine. The son suddenly asked his father: Can you guarantee it? Danny Collins blurted out with a serious face: Have I ever let you down? This time finally not only amused my son, but also amused the audience. It's just that this time it's not a mockery, but a helpless laugh from the bottom of my heart.
Under the authorization of Yoko Ono, the whole movie uses nine John Lennon songs, sometimes long, sometimes brisk, and tender tunes, adding a touch of warm color to the picture.
About that absurd self
Under this theme, the movie is full of self-deprecating and absurd elements. Danny Collins’ entire old life is a joke. The small self in him looks so dazzling in his perennial chaotic life and the reality of alienating his family. The light is weak and precarious. Things related to him are always inexplicable. You have to move a grand piano into a hotel room wherever you live, drive a concert tour bus to find your son's family, and make endless appointments with the hotel manager for dinner and use everything. Resources are unscrupulous.
