There’s one real reason to see “The Revisionist,” and he’s right there in the title. Alex Vlack was awfully lucky to get Dustin Hoffman to center his narrative feature debut, which otherwise strains to reach its ambitions.
Hoffman plays David, a legendary writer described, alternately and accurately, as “a national treasure” and “a royal pain.” No one is more torn between these two descriptions than his son, Jacob (Tom Sturridge), who has been trying to write a biography of his father for years. David has no interest in sharing his complex story, or his many secrets, much to Jacob’s intense frustration. He’s been hoping that a biography of his famous dad will not only boost his own career, but shed some light on his tortured life both as a child and now, as he’s married to fellow writer Elise (Alison Brie).
When Jacob runs into his old friend John (André Holland), Elise has an idea. David has always been dismissive of Jacob—who writes ad copy instead of fiction—but loves John, who was published in the New Yorker right out of college. So perhaps, Elise suggests, John can get David to open up, record their conversations and then pass them on to Jacob.
Obviously, this plan falls apart immediately—or, more specifically, as soon as John secretly calls the New Yorker promising to write David’s story himself. And that’s just the start of the subterfuge, since everyone seems to have ulterior motives of one sort or another.
Holland (“Moonlight”) is especially strong as the mirror to a convincingly sullen Sturridge (a two-time Tony nominee, most recently for “Sea Wall / A Life”). Selfish and magnetic, John is, ultimately, everything the insecure Jacob can’t be. But Vlack, who also wrote the script, truly has no clue what to do with the one woman in his film. He tries to convince us—and himself—that she’s the real center of the story. In actuality, she spends most of her time reacting to the men, or staring pensively into space.
But if the energy drops considerably when she and Sturridge are onscreen, it explodes whenever Hoffman turns up. He shouts and swears and drinks and moans, and brings the movie back to life by very happily chewing every scene he’s in.
David is capricious, dismissive and even cruel to his son. And what compounds Jacob’s pain is that no one else can even see it—they’re all happy just to be in the presence of this thrilling, charismatic character. With Hoffman in such playful form, it’s easy for us to relate.
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