Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

The Humbling Blu-ray Movie Review

Bumbling stumbling Humbling.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 21, 2015

One can only imagine the internal conflict that brews inside performance artists who don't simply play a part but instead dedicate their lives to transforming into a part, who so thoroughly dismiss everything about who they are and so completely embrace everything they are not in the name of putting on a good show. What happens when one's true identity becomes all but lost -- maybe even erased -- and replaced by bits and pieces of current and former characters, essentially becoming the sum of someone they are not rather than the person they were born to be and molded into throughout the course of their lives, at least their lives prior to their work on the stage? One can only imagine the consequences of blending this delusion with senility (not to mention an affair with a lesbian 40 or 50 years his junior, dealing with her sex-changed ex-lover, and fending off a psycho who repeatedly insists he murder in her name), and one can only further imagine a movie that tackles these subjects in a far more coherent manner than this mess, Director Barry Levinson's (Rain Man) The Humbling, a grossly uneven and wobbly tale of an aging actor whose life spirals so far out of control that he can no longer distinguish between what is real and what is not, or even who he is and what it is he is doing. And neither, for that matter, can the audience.

Dazed and confused.

Simon Axler (Al Pacino), a confused, delusional actor, collapses on stage and winds up institutionalized. He enters into Internet therapy with Dr. Farr (Dylan Baker). When he's returned home, an old acquaintance comes back into his life: a spunky young lesbian named Pegeen (Greta Gerwig) who claims she's fantasized about a relationship with him since her childhood. The two become romantically engaged, despite the objections of her parents, who happen to be Axler's old friends (Dan Hedaya and Dianne Wiest). Axler becomes gradually more lost in the blur of his life, failing to recognize reality from his own mental escapes. Meanwhile, Axler is dogged by a fellow patient (Nina Arianda) who eggs him on to murder her husband, whom she caught sexually abusing his own daughter.

Levinson has shaped The Humbling to reflect the character's schizophrenic life. It's filled with allusions that both draw near the story and distant from it. Rarely does the film, at least beyond its beginning -- and even then it can fall into question -- ever feel like it's in command of its faculties, which does admittedly bring it more closely aligned to its character but at the same time threatens to alienate the audience that cannot get behind a movie that's so skewered from reality that there's almost no tangible grasp of what's real and what is not. Only rarely does Levinson explicitly makes it clear, at least in a very tangible sense, when Axler's actions are fully detached from reality. In a long middle stretch, Axler repeatedly receives telephone calls that are accompanied by a classic 1950s-style Science Fiction motif as his ringtone, which one might think would serve as some sort of signal to the audience that either breaks the character from reality or brings him back to it. Unfortunately, it's all but abandoned later in the film, and whether that's because it didn't truly mean much of anything to begin with or because he becomes so detached from life that nothing can signal him back into it isn't clear. And neither is anything else in the movie, for that matter. Sadly, a good idea -- not the phone, but the entire story premise -- becomes lost in a film that simply doesn't mesh all that well. Its line is too blurred to fully appreciate its nuanced dynamics (if they're even there, which is debatable), leaving the movie to play with a commendable novelty but a far too distant detachment that never quite allows the audience to sort out any kind of deeper meaning or theme on the other side, again if any such thing even exists in the tangled web of emptiness the movie embraces.

Though the film proves wobbly in its narrative and delivery, Al Pacino's performance stands a bit firmer. While the actor is challenged to play a part that's as distant and scattered as the movie, he does so with a mostly convincing flavor and depth that sees him not simply explore both ends of his persona but to oftentimes wrestle with them, to deal with the consequences of one in the other or come to terms with his inability to distinguish truth from fiction. The character is essentially physically embodied in several other characters, notably "Prince" (Billy Porter), Pegeen's former lesbian lover who, since their break-up, has undergone a sex change operation and, like Axler, desperately wants to keep Pegeen close, even if he's no loner who or what she wants. Axler's flights of uneasiness, distance, and detachment can also be seen in Sybil (Nina Arianda), the pest who begs him to murder her husband.

The Humbling Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Humbling's 1080p transfer provides good, precise details but is otherwise fairly unspectacular. Facial lines and hair, clothing textures, even scuffed hardwood floors are nicely rich in lifelike detail. The image does take on a slightly washed out, brightly contrasted quality that gives it a light, airy feel. Colors are still nicely defined, however, particularly evident in brighter shades seen in cheerier outdoor locations. Black levels tend to favor a brighter, slightly washed out appearance. Minor compression artifacts are evident in places. This is a solid if not fairly unspectacular HD image from Millennium Entertainment.

The Humbling Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Humbling features an adequate Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. It incorporates some nicely distinctive yet natural surround elements, including pubic address curtain time announcements at the beginning, direction-specific dialogue in chapter five that moves between front and back dependent on camera position, and some beautiful reverberation later in the film when Axler confronts Pegeen's Mother in an empty auditorium. Light coughing in the audience and a few other small ambient effects give nice location-specific shape to the proceedings. Music is light, somewhat nuanced and well spaced around the front with minor surround support. Dialogue delivery is clean and precise from the center. There's nothing spectacular about the track, but a few well defined elements help carry an otherwise pedestrian, straightforward listen.

The Humbling Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Aside from a 1080p preview for The Humbling (2:21) and 480i previews for Reach Me, Elsa & Fred, By the Gun, and Fading Gigolo, all that's included is "Making of" Featurette (1080p, 3:43), a brief look at the source novel, story details, Barry Levinson's style, and core story ideas.

The Humbling Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Humbling builds on the foundation of a good idea but proves too wobbly to be dependable in its exploration of a challenging narrative that deals with not only advanced age but delusions and the separation of reality and fiction, with the latter seeming to gradually replace the former. The film never finds firm footing or a definitive path through the murkiness, seemingly in an effort to visually compliment the emotionally challenged lead character but only resulting in a further narrative blur. Pacino, however, is fine in the lead, at least in terms of trying to bring something to an otherwise messy part that's too undefined for its, and the movie's, own good. Millennium Entertainment's Blu-ray release of The Humbling features good video and audio. Supplements are limited to a trailer and a short featurette. Skip it.