Duane Hopwood (2005)
Directed by Matt Mulhern
Written by Matt Mulhern
Starring David Schwimmer, Janeane Garofalo, Judah Friedlander, John Krasinski
Release Date November 11th, 2005
Published May 22nd, 2006
My friends know quite well that I don't drink. That in my lifetime I have had exactly one gulp of alcohol and never touched the stuff again. I may not have drinking experience but even I can recognize the problem drinker. The sad, misguided soul whose everyday is a quest to quiet his inner demons with drink. I have seen it in real life, in real time and it's very sad. No film I have ever seen has ever really captured the true drunk experience. Movies like Barfly and Clean and Sober featured powerhouse, emotional performances from Mickey Rourke and Michael Keaton respectively but both were to extreme to be the true drunk experience.
The new to DVD film Duane Hopwood starring David Schwimmer comes closer than ever to capturing the sad, desperate drunk at his lowest point. A point that many may not recognize as low, he has a job, friends, is from time to time still a quite caring father, but a severe low it is.
Written and directed by Matt Mulhern, whose acting history is surprisingly colorful, he was Teddy Beckersted in One Crazy Summer, Duane Hopwood is a glum but desperately affecting drama about alcoholism at it's most mundane and realistic.
David Schwimmer plays Duane a lower middle class schlub who works as a pit boss in an Atlantic City Casino. He is divorced from his wife Linda (Janeane Garofalo) and a DUI arrest threatens to keep him from ever seeing his two daughters again.
The arrest is a first offense and we learn that though Duane clearly has a problem, bad enough that it ended his marriage, this is the first time he has ever been considered dangerous. Duane's life aside from this has gone on sadly but relatively quiet. He makes it to work on time every night, he has loyal friends and neighbors willing to help him and take care of him and even his ex-wife hasn't given up on him as a father though she has moved on with a new boyfriend.
The extraordinary thing about the movie Duane Hopwood is how real it all feels. Unlike other movies about the alcoholic experience there are no grand dramatic revelations, there is little or no catharisis and the ending is even somewhat vague about Duane's possibility for redemption. The film captures the realistic day to day activities of the functioning alcoholic, a person many of us have known and begrudgingly accepted for many years.
Many people watching David Schwimmer will feel they cannot seperate him from Ross on Friends but give Duane Hopwood a few minutes and Ross disappears and this character becomes Schwimmer's new reality. This is some terrific acting from the actor most often underrated amongst the flashy cast of Friends.
Janeane Garofalo too has often been underrated. Her comedy chops have always been respected and her work on television's The West Wing is Emmy worthy. However it's a performance like this that shows truly what Janeane is capable of. Brushing aside her usually brusque sarcastic nature, Garofalo shows a strength and sensitivity that is new to her acting.
And in what is the films most entertaining role comic Judah Friedlander steals scenes as Anthony a forty year old security guard with dreams of being a stand-up comic and making it out of his mom's basement. He pushes Duane to let him be his roommate and though both seem aware of the sad state of two heterosexual forty year old men living together they form a strong bond that survives even Duane's lowest moments of self destruction. Friedlander is pitch perfect as comic relief from the films admittedly dour main story but he's also part of the films core tenderness that is necessary to making the film watchable. Like Garofalo's Linda, Anthony is not in Duane's life to save him but just to be his friend and help him out when he can.
The film never made it much past the press rows at Sundance in 2005 but now it's on DVD and waiting to be seen, Duane Hopwood is an exceptional film.
