Review of Danny Collins (2015) by Ken G — 02 May 2015

Easily the surprise movie of the year. Plenty of films fail their overtly loaded talent within; and I certainly expected this one to... but alas, for once, it's a pleasure to be enjoyably wrong.

Pacino does, indeed, fit the profile of the leathery tanned "staying too long at the party" rock star, clearly plagued by the notion of his one-hit-wonderness. Pushed into his desire for humanity and credibility by a lost letter of encouragement (sent to him by John Lennon) that finally surfaces after decades - the movie's inherent implausbility isn't half as grounded by it's "based on a true story" nature, as it is by all of the performances herein (starting with the always cool Annette Bening, all the way thru to 6 year old newcomer, Giselle Eisenberg).

That the movie features Yoko Ono's foot, heavily on the music supervision pedal of her husband's back catalog... is mostly a welcomed thing (until one gets to the silly "Cold Turkey" scene).

Be that as it may, a "splendid time is guaranteed for all!".

GRADE: (B+).