Film review: Max Rose (2013)

Jerry Lewis told me that when Martin Scorsese’s “King of Comedy” was released, he was pleased with so many positive critical comments for his dramatic performance, but also found it a bit ironic. “Suddenly I’m an actor? By that time I had been acting for around 40 years!” There is something about a comedian doing drama that wows the critics. But, as Lewis stated, “I didn’t break a sweat doing ‘King of Comedy’ but I’ll show you scenes in ‘The Bellboy’ where I had to shower and change after one rehearsal.”

Lewis once again does drama in “Max Rose,” a hit at Cannes in 2013 as part of an homage to Lewis as a “towering figure in cinema.” But it didn’t play the states until the Museum of Modern Art screened it for a Jerry Lewis 90th birthday celebration in 2016. The film didn’t get wide release, despite a cast that is filled with welcome veterans like Lewis, Claire Bloom, Dean Stockwell, Rance Howard, even Mort Sahl. The familiar talents of Ileana Douglas, Fred Willard, and Kevin Pollak further enhance this story of an elderly jazz pianist’s discovery that his recently deceased wife may have once had an affair.

While he might have offered much more in his uninhibited comedy classics, Jerry Lewis shows range as an actor in “Max Rose” as much as any other movie in which he’s appeared. His gift of pantomime informs the sequences where the title character is deep in introspective thought. The flashbacks of a happy marriage alternate with the stern loneliness that he is currently experience. He has loved ones surrounding him for support. But he remains tight lipped and unwavering in his stoic introspection. It is a very grounded, solid performance that anchors the narrative effectively.

But other than the performances, the film itself moves too slowly and isn’t terribly involving. The peripheral characters haven’t enough depth to register, and there is no real arc to the story structure. The film attempts to investigate issues between the title character and his son (with a granddaughter caught in the middle) as a tangential portion of the narrative, and also explores a bit about the aging process when Max hooks up with some old friends, but these sequences don’t really go anywhere. The film simply plods along with only the performances to bolster each scene. Even the confrontation between Max and the man with whom his wife had an affair has too little dramatic buildup to be impactful.

For Jerry Lewis fans, the highlight is when he digs up his old shtick and starts pantomiming to a jazz record (as he had in older movies like “The Errand Boy” and “CinderFella”). But then some others join in and it ceases to be a spotlight for Jerry’s throwback comedy. Perhaps the best performance outside of Jerry Lewis comes from Lee Weaver, another old timer whose career dates back to the 60s (he played Bill Cosby’s brother in the comedian’s first series).

The only thing worthwhile in this rather dull drama is the attraction of some real old timers from the movies, especially Jerry Lewis in the title role. It is likely the last movie in which he’ll have a starring role, and his performance is an apt culmination to a long career featuring so many fine examples of timeless artistry.