The Great Buck Howard (John Malkovich, Colin Hanks, Emily Blunt, Tom Hanks) — When I saw the trailer for this film, I told my wife that Buck Howard sounded like Kreskin, the co-called mentalist/magician who used to appear on Johnny Carson and in nightclubs across the country. When this film ends, there is a screen post-script focusing on Kreskin. Thus, this movie must be at least partially biographical. The Great Buck Howard tells the story of a mentalist/performer who is well past his prime, playing small towns to half-filled houses. We learn that Buck was given the title “Great” by Johnny Carson on whose show he appeared dozens of time. But Jay Leno never invited him and neither did Letterman, O’Brien, Oprah, Ellen or any other talk show. But he seems incredibly upbeat even as he arrives in Akron, Bakersfield and other places where performers go to die. As the story opens, we see a young, would-be, miserable law student played by Colin Hanks (Tom’s son) giving up law school and being interviewed to become the new road manager of Buck Howard. This is a way-station for Hank’s character, Troy Gabel, but it’s Buck’s life. It is here that the movie reminds me of the Billy Crystal-David Paymer film, Mr. Saturday Night, the story of a has-been comedian who doesn’t face the fact that he’s long past his best days. Both Crystal’s Buddy Young, Jr. and John Malkovich’s Buck Howard know the world has changed but refuse to believe they have become irrelevant or, as Howard’s last road manager called him, a “fossil.”
The film is a character study. If not for Malkovich’s brilliant performance, this would have been a very ordinary film. But, as usual, Malkovich is riveting although this is, at times, a very different kind of character for him. But this guy is multi-layered and is not the same guy off stage as he is when performing. This movie is a Play-Tone production, which means that it’s produced by Tom Hanks, who has a small role as … guess what … the father of his son, Colin’s, character. The younger Hanks is a good, evolving actor who doesn’t have his father’s range or his on-screen presence. But he’s working on it. He is good enough here but the star is clearly Malkovich, and this movie is well worth seeing just to watch his performance.