Review of My Favorite Year (1982) by Matt S — 19 Feb 2011

During the 50's Benjy Stone (Mark Linn-Baker) is a writer for the top rated variety/comedy show. Alan Swann (Peter O'Toole), a famous but often drunk actor is going to be the week's guest star. King Kaiser (Joseph Bologna) the headliner, wants Swann off of the show, but Benjy tries to keep Swann on. This makes Benjy have the wonderful, and harder than expected, job of keeping Swann in line and away from the alcohol. With this difficult task, and a union boss that wants to stop the show, Benjy will have his hands full for the week's show and will have to try his hardest to make everything work out as it is supposed to.

Well what can you say? It's Peter O'Toole. As I mentioned earlier I have not seen many of his works, but it only takes seeing one of hils films to understand what a fine actor he really is. He reminds me a bit of Jeremy Irons actually, which is a very good thing to me. As expected, O'Toole's performance here was exceptional, good enough for the Oscar nod he was deservedly given. It is funny though, you would think after an actor like Peter O'Toole has been nominated for so many Oscars, the Academy would eventually just give him one. However, they decided to give him the Honorary Award, which there is certainly no shame there. I really enjoyed Mark Linn-Baker's performance as well, I thought he was the funniest part of the movie, though I do think many people may find his performance a bit too silly for their taste. The supporting cast was good, but nothing to really praise.

I tend to feel that Richard Benjamin has been much more succesful when he is playing a character, rather than in the directing chair. That is, I think the films he played in were better, not necessarily that his acting is special or anything. Just a good actor, and not always such a good director. So I was a little worried going into this film in the first place, but it was showing on TCM and I have not seen many films with Peter O'Toole, so I thought I should give this a go, considering O'Toole's acting nomination. I am actually really glad I did. The direction by Richard Benjamin was very good in my opinion, in fact it is probably the best film he has ever directed. My Favorite Year had a fun story, with likeable characters and a likeable cast. Alan Swann was an excellent overall character. He is a famous actor that is Benjy's childhood hero, but once Benjy gets to know him he actually turns out to be just your regular drunk. We learn a lot about the character of Alan Swann throughout the film, and it really turns out to be quite the touching little story. The writing was brilliant, which is a big reason why this film ended up working out. The characters were so well done that the audience actually begins to care for the seemingly good for nothing, drunk actor that cannot get his life together. Or at least I certainly did. Not to mention My Favorite Year was absolutely hilarious, another credit going to the wonderful screenplay by Dennis Palumbo. A shame though because this was the first and last film Palumbo ever wrote a screenplay for.

Overall, My Favorite Year is a funny, well acted, incredibly written, and surprisingly touching film. Peter O'Toole and Mark Linn-Baker bring plenty of laughs for everyone. This may not be film everyone enjoys. I wouldn't recommend it to the average movie goer as it will probably just come across as boring and pointless. But if you are a fan of classics this is probably the film you have been looking for. It was by no means a perfect films or a masterpiece, but I personally loved it.