Danny Collins, Blu-ray (2015)

by | Jun 16, 2015 | DVD & Blu-ray Video Reviews

Danny Collins, Blu-ray (2015)

Cast: Al Pacino, Christopher Plummer, Annette Bening, Bobby Cannavale
Director: Dan Fogelman
Studio: Bleecker Street/ Universal 57170750 [6/30/15]
Video: 2.40:1 for 16:9 1080p HD color
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Extras: Behind the Scenes, Danny Collins – album covers thru the years, Digital HD with Ultraviolet
Length: 216 min.
Rating: ****1/2

This tear-jerker is very well done and Al Pacino does a fine job playing an aging ‘70s rocker who still has a terrific audience of fans and does national tours in a big bus. He does a Tom Jones-style onstage bit that gets the ladies in a quite a state. He is also self-absorbed, living high on the hog, married to a much-younger wife who is rather openly cheating on him, and into cocaine and heavy drinking.

His good friend and longtime manager, played by Christopher Plummer, finds and buys a letter John Lennon sent to Danny after seeing his first interview in some rock magazine. The editor who did the interview had kept the letter and never let Danny know about it, because it was worth a lot of money. When Danny finally sees and absorbs the letter, he realizes he is totally burned out. He decides to completely change his life. He sets off to rediscover his family, find true love and begin a second act, if it’s not too late.

In spite of a lot of problems and setbacks, he gets somewhere, especially with his son which he has totally ignored all these years, and who naturally hates him. They have an over-active little daughter named Hope, which Danny pays for sending to a special school for her condition. He makes a new friend in the female manager of the Hilton hotel in New Jersey where he is staying, plus having many setbacks with her.

Most of the music in the film comes from John Lennon, and the film is based on an actual folk singer who did receive such a letter from Lennon, and didn’t get it until decades after Lennon’s death. The most amazing thing about the film is that everybody in it is basially a good person – that’s quite different from most Pacino films. It’s also great to see the two oldsters – Pacino and Plummer – doing their expert thing in the scenes with the two of them, as well as by themselves.

—John Sunier

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