Diminished Capacity
Sundance 2008
★ ★ ★ ★ (out of four)
OK, maybe four stars are too much. Maybe Diminished Capacity isn’t “all that and a bag of chips,” as a friend of mine is fond of saying. But I’ll tell you what, it’s pretty funny. I think I heard more laughing than anything I’ve seen at Sundance since Napoleon Dynamite and Little Miss Sunshine. That bodes well for the box office prospects of this film.
Alan Alda gives a terrific performance as Rollie Zerb, a small-town Missouri old-timer with Alzheimer’s, who lives with his sister, plus the hilarious but unexplained Wendell who lives in a trailer by the house. They are visited by Cooper (Matthew Broderick), who arrives at his mother’s request to help talk Uncle Rollie into a nursing home. Cooper has mental problems of his own, due to a recent concussion (hence the movie title). While back in town, he runs into Charlotte (Virginia Madsen), his high school sweetheart who is recently divorced from the town mayor. And somehow Rollie, Cooper, Charlotte and her son wind up heading to Chicago together, where they are going to try to sell Uncle Rollie’s rare baseball card of Frank Schulte, from the 1908 Chicago Cubs (the last Cubbies team to win the World Series!).
Broderick is solid, in his awkward, understated way. Madsen is the straight woman. But Alan Alda delivers the comedy as Uncle Rollie, and dominates the screen in almost every scene. And yes, if you squint you’ll see shades of Hawkeye Pierce, but his Rollie character is a complete departure from anything he has done in the past, and probably his best comedic performance since MASH.
The script is very well-written, and under the direction of veteran actor Terry Kinney the action moves along briskly. Yes, it feels a little bit like Little Miss Sunshine, but there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a very funny and feel-good movie. What more could you want?
Sundance Moment: Broderick was much better on stage than I would have expected. He was there with his wife, Sarah Jessica Parker, whose movie Smart People had debuted at Sundance the night before. Alan Alda was charming as well. Bobby Canavale was in two movies playing at Sundance this year, the other being The Merry Gentleman.
★ ★ ★ ★ (out of four)
OK, maybe four stars are too much. Maybe Diminished Capacity isn’t “all that and a bag of chips,” as a friend of mine is fond of saying. But I’ll tell you what, it’s pretty funny. I think I heard more laughing than anything I’ve seen at Sundance since Napoleon Dynamite and Little Miss Sunshine. That bodes well for the box office prospects of this film.
Alan Alda gives a terrific performance as Rollie Zerb, a small-town Missouri old-timer with Alzheimer’s, who lives with his sister, plus the hilarious but unexplained Wendell who lives in a trailer by the house. They are visited by Cooper (Matthew Broderick), who arrives at his mother’s request to help talk Uncle Rollie into a nursing home. Cooper has mental problems of his own, due to a recent concussion (hence the movie title). While back in town, he runs into Charlotte (Virginia Madsen), his high school sweetheart who is recently divorced from the town mayor. And somehow Rollie, Cooper, Charlotte and her son wind up heading to Chicago together, where they are going to try to sell Uncle Rollie’s rare baseball card of Frank Schulte, from the 1908 Chicago Cubs (the last Cubbies team to win the World Series!).
Broderick is solid, in his awkward, understated way. Madsen is the straight woman. But Alan Alda delivers the comedy as Uncle Rollie, and dominates the screen in almost every scene. And yes, if you squint you’ll see shades of Hawkeye Pierce, but his Rollie character is a complete departure from anything he has done in the past, and probably his best comedic performance since MASH.
The script is very well-written, and under the direction of veteran actor Terry Kinney the action moves along briskly. Yes, it feels a little bit like Little Miss Sunshine, but there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a very funny and feel-good movie. What more could you want?
Sundance Moment: Broderick was much better on stage than I would have expected. He was there with his wife, Sarah Jessica Parker, whose movie Smart People had debuted at Sundance the night before. Alan Alda was charming as well. Bobby Canavale was in two movies playing at Sundance this year, the other being The Merry Gentleman.
Labels: Alan Alda, Chicago Cubs, Matthew Broderick, Virginia Madsen
posted by Bill at 11:47 PM
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