No. 94 (2021) BEST SELLERS. Nov. 15th.

 

Film No. 94  (2021)  November 15th.  6:30 PM   Cinema 1.  LUNA,  Leederville. 

"We at Stanbridge publishing believe that is your signature, so you owe us a book"(Lucy reminds tired, cranky, washed up author Harris Shaw of his obligations).

I'm not sure what it is about films being shot during the COVID pandemic, but there is something distinctive about the unevenness of narrative. BEST SELLERS fits this bill wholeheartedly. It's a film that splutters along. I referred to my watch 3 or 4 times. Yes, you know what I mean. That type of spluttering!

Lucy Stanbridge (Aubrey Plaza) and Harris Shaw (Michael Caine) give this film credible chemistry. Both are terrific actors from comedy roots. Their poise and timing captured in the opening scenes set BEST SELLERS on the path to a dramedy worth recommending. Then the script loses its funny bone. Plaza and Caine are made to change gear and turn their relationship into a cliched, symbolic grandfather and long lost granddaughter, finding each other via a road movie trope. 

Shaw is introduced to us as being alcohol dependent, unhinged and seemingly in no position to produce a novel still owed to Standbridge Publishing (Lucy). Then 30 minutes in, he has unearthed a manuscript from a "top drawer" which becomes the centre piece for a Lucy/Harris road trip. So does the trip become the vehicle to maintain the comic punch of earlier scenes? Or is it a chance to devise a pseudo grandfather/granddaughter discovery of respect for another trope?

Unfortunately, first time feature director Lina Roessier (Mustard Seed (short)) takes the latter path. The comedy dissolves and we are expected to fall into the arms of our leads and become reflective as they open their hearts. Because Plaza and Caine are in charge they get part way there ..... in a cinema however, I'm looking for more. The happy ending tinged with great sadness had more people, at my screening, looking at their smart watches than reaching for tissues. 7GUMS.