''The Humbling'' is a 2014

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film directed by

Barry Levinson Barry Lee Levinson (born April 6, 1942) is an American filmmaker, comedian and actor. Levinson's best-known works are mid-budget comedy drama and drama films such as '' Diner'' (1982); ''The Natural'' (1984); '' Good Morning, Vietnam'' (1987); ...

and written by

Buck Henry Buck Henry (born Henry Zuckerman; December 9, 1930 – January 8, 2020) was an American actor, screenwriter, and director. Henry's contributions to film included his work as a co-writer for Mike Nichols's ''The Graduate'' (1967) for which he r ...

and Michal Zebede, based on the 2009 novel '' The Humbling'' by

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...

. The film stars

Al Pacino Alfredo James Pacino (; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he has received numerous accolades: including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy ...

Greta Gerwig Greta Celeste Gerwig (; born August 4, 1983) is an American actress, screenwriter, and director. She first garnered attention after working on and appearing in several mumblecore films. Between 2006 and 2009, she appeared in a number of films ...

Dianne Wiest Dianne Evelyn Wiest (; born March 28, 1948) is an American actress. She has won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress for 1986’s '' Hannah and Her Sisters'' and 1994’s ''Bullets over Broadway'' (both of which were directed by Woo ...

Nina Arianda Nina Arianda Matijcio (born September 18, 1984) is an American actress. She won the 2012 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance as Vanda Jordan in ''Venus in Fur,'' and she was nominated for the 2011 Tony Award for Best Actres ...

Dylan Baker Dylan Baker (born October 7, 1959) is an American actor. He gained recognition for his roles in the films such as '' Planes, Trains and Automobiles'' (1987), ''Happiness'' (1998), '' Thirteen Days'' (2000), '' Road to Perdition'' (2002), '' Spide ...

Charles Grodin Charles Sidney Grodin (April 21, 1935 – May 18, 2021) was an American actor, comedian, author, and television talk show host. Grodin began his acting career in the 1960s appearing in TV serials including '' The Virginian''. After a small part ...

Dan Hedaya Daniel G. Hedaya (born July 24, 1940) is an American actor. He established himself as a supporting actor, often playing sleazy villains or wisecracking supporting characters. He has had supporting roles in films such as '' True Confessions'' (198 ...

, Billy Porter,

Kyra Sedgwick Kyra Minturn Sedgwick (; born August 19, 1965) is an American actress, producer and director. For her starring role as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on the TNT crime drama ''The Closer'', she won a Golden Globe Award in 2007 and an Emmy Awa ...

, and Mary Louise Wilson. It was screened in the Special Presentations section of the

2014 Toronto International Film Festival The 39th annual Toronto International Film Festival, the 39th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held in Canada from 4–14 September 2014. David Dobkin's film '' The Judge'', starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert D ...

and in the Out of Competition section of the 71st Venice International Film Festival. The film was released on January 23, 2015, by Millennium Films.

Plot

Simon Axler is an aging actor who suffers from bouts of dementia. He is institutionalized after an incident during a Broadway play, then returns home, where he contemplates suicide in

Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fi ...

style. When he embarks upon an affair with an old friend's amoral

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whic ...

daughter, his world starts to fall apart. It ends on stage, with even Axler's audience and fellow actors unsure of what's real and what's not.

Cast

as Simon Axler *

as Pegeen Mike Stapleford *

as Louise Trenner *

as Asa Stapleford *

as Carol Stapleford *

as Jerry *

as Dr. Farr *

as Sybil * Billy Porter as Prince * Mary Louise Wilson as Mrs. Rutledge

Production

After reading and connecting with the book, Pacino decided to option the book and asked Barry Levinson to direct it. Levinson decided to make the movie as a

dark comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

, noting, "If you want to talk about an older actor in decline, just to do it as some straight drama didn’t seem that intriguing to me" also citing that comedy "seemed to me inherent in the piece". Although both Pacino and Levinson have denied that the character of Simon is autobiographical to Pacino's life, Pacino noted that he related to the material, stating that "it’s in, as they say, my wheelhouse." Although the film in the beginning had ample funding, the listed conditions got too much for Levinson, who rejected them and lost by his estimate "somewhere in the area of $6 million." Subsequently it was decided to shoot the film incrementally with several breaks built in to accommodate Pacino's schedule. This was a new experience for Levinson although he welcomed the change of pace as "It added to the clarity." On February 4, 2014, it was announced that Millennium Films had acquired the worldwide rights to the film.

Reception

''The Humbling'' received mixed reviews from critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film has a rating of 53%, based on 64 reviews, with a rating of 5.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''The Humbling'' is an inarguable highlight of Al Pacino's late-period filmography, but that's an admittedly low bar that it doesn't always clear by a very wide margin." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a score of 59 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Humbling, The Adultery in films 2014 independent films 2014 romantic comedy-drama films Erotic romance films 2010s erotic drama films American romantic comedy-drama films American erotic drama films Films directed by Barry Levinson Films with screenplays by Buck Henry Films about actors Films scored by Marcelo Zarvos Films based on works by Philip Roth Films based on American novels 2014 comedy films 2014 drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films