Simply A Masterpiece

Excellent adaptation.

Don't Believe the Hype

A different way of telling a story

Do you remember what Seinfeld was like when the show first began? There'd be the regular story with Jerry and Elaine and George and Kramer, and then there'd be little snippets of Jerry's stand-up comedy where the jokes would somehow related to story. If you can imagine that kind of thing, about 90 minutes long and starring a sad and pathetic loser who isn't funny at all…that's The Jimmy Show.Frank Whaley is Jimmy, a working class guy who takes care of his invalid grandmother. He's got a job at the local supermarket, a girlfriend (Carla Gugino) he just knocked up and after a series of get-rich-quick schemes, he's settled on trying to make it as a stand-up comedian. And while the story is inconsistent in most ways, the one, grinding, inescapable constant is that Jimmy is a loser. And not a funny loser or a quirky loser or a hard luck loser, just a loser. There's nothing really interesting about Jimmy and the only empathetic aspect to the character is his commitment to caring for his grandmother. The movie follows Jimmy through marriage, having a daughter, divorce, menial employment of one form or another and through it all, Jimmy is going to open mic night at comedy clubs for his 10 minutes in the spotlight.This movie is adapted for a stage play and I can only hope that there was initially some point to the story. I hope the play tried to say something about standing on the lower rungs of the Ladder of Life and never being able to take a step up, because there's nothing like that in the movie. Jimmy is a loser and, except for a moment of happiness when his daughter is born, his life sucks and just keeps on sucking. But it's not that his life is bad because he's unlucky or there's something wrong with him. It just sucks.I can only imagine the moments when Jimmy is on stage as a comedian are supposed to provide some insights into who and why he is what he is, but it doesn't do any of that. He starts out as just a desperately unfunny wannabe, but quickly morphs into this Spalding Gray-ish monologist who just talks about his life. But there's never any connection between what he's saying on stage and what's going on in his life, except it all just sucks.The movie also suffers from an inability to maintain a consistent tone. Sometimes Jimmy is a somewhat dull witted guy and then sometimes he's a bitter smartass. Sometimes Jimmy is completely passive and then sometimes he's confrontational and in control. There are moments when we're supposed to think his daughter is sort of the cornerstone to his life, yet the girl is absent from long stretches of the film.Sometimes when you watch a bad movie, you can still imagine how someone at some point thought it might be good. One of the worst movies I've ever seen was Megaforce, starring Barry Bostwick, about a high-tech military squad battling the forces of evil. I actually talked my brother into going to see that instead of, I believe, Rocky III. But even with Megaforce, I can imagine someone sitting around saying "It's got laser guns and explosions and a flying motorcycle. It'll be so cool!" I can't imagine anyone sitting around and saying "Boy, people are really going to enjoy The Jimmy Show".

In order to be a good critic one has to rise above one's personal biases. Period. If one cannot get past hating love stories or action films, then one should not practice the craft, because there are good films that are mere love stories or action films. It is the excellence of the film, and how it achieves its excellence, that is more important than what sort of a film it is. This basic lack of understanding how to separate one's likes from the objective ability of art to effectively communicate, is why most critics fail in their task. On a related plane is the inability of many critics to distinguish between when a film is something, and when it is merely about something. A good example of this is the 2001 independent film by actor/director Frank Whaley, called The Jimmy Show (nothing at all like the Jim Carrey vehicle, The Truman Show); his second directorial effort after 1999's lauded Sundance Festival film Joe The King. It is a very good, albeit not great, film about the depressing life of a working class loser. Yet, the film itself is never depressing, despite its being damned to obscurity by critics for that very fact. Again, the point is that film critics claimed something about the film that is about what the film portrays, not how it portrays it…. In many ways, Jimmy O'Brien is like George Bailey, from It's A Wonderful Life, save for two things- the first is that he's a miserable person whose own misery has cost him everything. He has no Mr. Potter as antagonist, and although George Bailey's choices also result in his depression at the end of that film, all of his choices have been selfless, not selfish. Jimmy O'Brien, on the other hand, has been behind all of his failures, because he has tried to please no one but himself. The second is that Jimmy O'Brien is beyond help and hope. Even were a guardian angel, like Bailey's Clarence Oddbody, to intervene, Jimmy would never pay attention long enough to learn. He has no need for others' counsel, and cares not to hear it.In this way, The Jimmy Show is the ultimate realist film, for there are far more Jimmy O'Briens in the world than George Baileys. But, it is the life of the fictive Jimmy O'Brien that depresses one, not the film about him, for this little film can make one feel much better about the lives they've lived, not only because how well the portrait of him is crafted, but if only because a viewer is not as badly off as the lead character. How many DVD viewers lead lives that have far too much truck with aspects of the characters from this film? I would say too many- most of whom would not want to admit it, which is the answer as to why this film was so unfairly panned upon its release. Looking into a mirror, when one does not like what one sees, is always a downer, and The Jimmy Show is a filmic mirror for far too large a portion of an American audience for it to have ever had any great financial nor critical success. But, it is the failure to look at what the mirror reflects, rather than what the mirror is, that was the cause for much of the hostility that this good little film engendered. But, with that knowledge in mind, take a second glance into the looking glass of The Jimmy Show, and Jimmy O'Brien's life. It's worth a bit of redemption, if not for him nor you, then for art.

I found it more depressing than funny. I was looking for more humor than sadness. It's it turns out to be very very sad. Everything turns for the worst for Jimmy. Everything that happens to Jimmy gets more and more depressing. He gets fired from the grocery job. He doesn't get any laughs at the comedy clubs. He keeps getting fired from his jobs. His wife leaves him. His grandma can't move on her own. His insurance is canceled. He is unable to buy his grandma's pills. It's all so sad. I only laughed twice and that's when his friend was moving boxes on the cart and they fall over twice. It's sad to see what happens to him and how he reacts to everything.

In my opinion Frank did a brilliant job of writing, acting and directing this tragic story of Jimmy, who, but for the grace of the universe, could have been any of us. The very ordinariness of much of the details of the story and of the characters juxtaposed against Jimmy's awesome courage in telling it in all its misery from the stage of the comedy club night after night was a stroke of genius.I think it perfectly set up for a sequel which could either give us one of those happy Hollywood endings, or take Jimmy's life to even further tragic ends. I'm hoping to see that sequel, although I feel it could stop where it did and leave the rest to our imaginations as it has done. The death of his grandmother, and the leaving of his wife and daughter make him free at last to go anywhere and do anything. Sometimes I think he'll find himself and build a good life, with at least weekends with Wendy, and other times I see him digging other deep, dark holes for himself. I think that was Mr. Whaley's objective: to make us wonder about this character, and if so, he has succeeded beyond his dreams.