The start of the movie we see Franny (Richard Gere) with his two best friends and how close they are, the relationship he has with their daughter, about to set out in the world; his Poodle, and then something goes terribly wrong.
There’s an accident that Franny is the ultimate cause of. Olivia stays around looking over Franny, for a limited time, but not being able to deal, moves away to start her own life.
Flash forward five years.
For five years, Gere’s Franny has been holed up in a luxury hotel, drinking cocktails of pain-killers he was originally prescribed after an accident that killed his two best friends and left him hobbled. Olivia (Dakota Fanning), the only child of those friends and a surrogate daughter to the bachelor, moved away to cope with her grief; when she returns to town an expectant mother and new bride, Franny leaps on the opportunity to feel alive again.
He immediately gets Olivia’s hunky-doctor husband Luke (Theo James) a job at the children’s hospital he built with her father; before the young man can even demonstrate his skills, Franny is parading him at society events as if he were the returned spirit of the hospital’s founder. He gives the kind of speeches that leave listeners a tiny bit embarrassed, and the kind of gifts one can’t reject even if one wants to. In return, he bizarrely expects to be as intimately tied to this young couple as he was to Olivia’s parents, who’d been his best friends since college.
Gere has no problem understanding how Franny gets away with things. He casually plants Franny in Luke’s personal space, and then speaks in a way that makes any discomfort “Lukie” might feel seem ridiculous. But the veil drops when we observe Franny at home, where his only friend is hydromorphone.
You can’t blame Franny for just wanting to go into oblivion. He has to deal with the fact that he killed his best friends. The burden he bares, would be too much for anyone to handle. But being a billionaire no one seems to notice or care, they write it off as eccentric.
Then one night, in a drunken, drugged state Luke hears and realizes that Franny is more than just dependent on the young couple than Poodle; Oliva or he ever realized. He has to hear and bare his apology and confession. And then the world starts to come crashing around Franny.
Franny has to come to deal with the fact that he is a 60 year old addict. Which has several twists and turns and loops. Ultimately coming to grips when he has to drive Poodle to the hospital, as the baby is coming.
I don’t think I have ever seen Gere play a role like this before. He was brilliant and raw, and amazing. The way he turns it on and switches it off in one instance is amazing. Even as a creepy drug addict Gere exudes a charm that only Gere can.
The fans expecting to see a Theo James movie will be sadden to see him, just as a pawn and a background player in the gripping tale of drug abuse. Theo is of course charming, and gorgeous on screen, of course still perfecting his American accent.
Dakota is the indie darling. Her looks are haunting when it starts to get real. And seeing her pregnant on screen is magical and simple in the chaos that is around her.
I loved this movie from start to finish. I don’t think the average Theo James fan should see this if they are under the age of 18.
Production companies: Celerity Pictures, TideRock Media, Treehouse Pictures, Follow Through Productions, Soaring Flight Productions, Andax Films, Magnolia Entertainment
Cast: Richard Gere, Dakota Fanning, Theo James, Clarke Peters, Dylan Baker, Cheryl Hines
Director-Screenwriter: Andrew Renzi
Producers: Kevin Turen, Jason Michael Berman, Jay Schuminsky, Thomas B. Fore
Executive producers: Michael Finley, Ruth Mutch, Walter Kortschak, Justin Nappi, Richard Loughran, Shelley Browning, Michael Diamond, George Paaswell, Andrew Corkin, John Friedberg, Mark Moran
Director of photography: Joe Anderson
Production designer: Ethan Tobman
Costume designer: Malgosia Turzanska
Editors: Dean C. Marcial, Matthew Rundell
Music: Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans
Casting directors: Kerry Barden, Paul Schnee, Diane Heery
Sales: Deborah McIntosh, WME; Nick Ogiony, CAA
No rating, 92 minutes
