eeyorestail3 Review of A Life in the Theatre

A Life in the Theatre (1993 TV Movie)

A thoughtful look into the life of Theatre actors

[9/10 · 28 May 2006]

"A Life In The Theater" is an insightful and thoughtful look inside the life of two actors in repertory theater. If you are looking for action, you might as well stop reading and go watch Star Wars again. If you are looking for a film that makes you think long after the movie is over, you have come to the right place. Lemmon is near the top of his game. I say "near to top" only because of his incredible performance in "Glengarry Glen Ross." Veteran actor John (Lemmon) and young actor Robert (Broderick) are stuck together by chance, sharing a dressing room and the stage throughout a long series of plays. They even frequent the same diner. John, a lonely old man who clearly understands that his days are numbered, seizes upon this opportunity to impart his years of experience in the theater to young Robert. Robert's initial pleasure at his companion's attention quickly turns to hauty anger, which in turn dissolves into frustrated bewilderment and concern. For a brief moment he glimpses, through John's actions, where his own path might lead, and it is a sad place indeed. It is not something on which Robert dwells, but his attitude towards John is somewhat tempered by the experience. Practicing his lines in the empty stage of the empty theater, he half-suspects that John is watching from the darkness at the back of the theater--and he is, watching proudly and reciting the lines quietly in concert with his young protégé. It should have ended there. John's interrupted soliloquy to an equally empty theater is anti-climatic. My only other criticism is that Broderick's performance is too understated--he needed a bit more passion. Still, an excellent film.