The Comeback Trail
CLOUDBURSTConcerned audience members can only hope that the comeback trail for Robert De Niro starts sooner rather than later. His latest feature, The Comeback Trail sees him partner up with Morgan Freeman and Tommy Lee Jones. It is a film that feels better suited to the days where the most striking and exciting satire was Saturday Night Live. We are decades past the glory days of The Producers, but there is still hope that the self-flagellation of the movie industry can spark a few notes of humour. Satire seems to have lost its spark with worryingly unstable comedies clamouring for a sub-genre that faded out a decade ago. Still, credit to them for trying. Someone ought to do it so the rest of us know not to.
With a surprisingly solid pairing of Zach Braff and De Niro, director, George Gallo struggles to mount anything substantial. It is seemingly set in the 1950s with our only markers of time being neckties, double denim and the bright new invention of ‘videotape’. Still, they’re referencing Psycho, so it’s anyone’s guess as to where we are or why. The Comeback Trail pairs a struggling producer with a dark and twisted idea. He is to have the star of his latest picture, Duke Montana (Tommy Lee Jones), bumped off. Gallo hopes that much of the comedy will come from the eagerness of Max Barber (De Niro) to kill off the leading lad. It’s good-natured and tries its best, but misses the mark.
Humour comes from the unexpected challenging the expected. The Comeback Trail is the latter without the former. Jones’ western star persona trying to plug a bullet in his brain details the tragedy of his circumstances, but the tone is skewered. Should we feel remorse or take this on as a jovial ribbing? Gallo does not seem sure, and it spikes the intentions of his story. Barber is under pressure from Reggie Fontaine (Morgan Freeman). He owes $350,000 to him for selling him a dud he assured him was a ‘sure-fire hit’. These are just niceties to set the story in motion. It is meant to be the fluff and filler to build up the harsher moments, of which there are many, but Gallo does not straddle to divide that well. We follow Barber through chirpy parties to seedy backrooms without a moment to acclimatise to the change or the initial surroundings.
‘Looks like that’s lunch,’ De Niro smirks as a man plummets to his death and collides with a bus. The build up to the demise is obvious, the satire of the buff and macho movie star not thinking of his own safety is present, but it is not thought through with anything but the comedy in mind. Toothless satire at its worst, uninspired yet well-cast at best, The Comeback Trail struggles to succeed where others did before. It is tested ground, especially for De Niro who has portrayed this before in What Just Happened. At least it comes from a place of love. Doubtless problems are found within The Comeback Trail, but it is a step in the right direction for Gallo after his work on The Poison Rose. It is indeed a leap forward for De Niro, too, after The War with Grandpa. Despite all the flaws and mishaps, The Comeback Trail does have its moments, many of them with De Niro. He may be on that comeback trail after all . . .