– By Cate Marquis –
Sometimes one role can define an actor’s career. Sam Elliott plays such an actor in late life, facing his own mortality and coming to grips with his life and career, in the sometimes funny, sometimes touching drama THE HERO. THE HERO is an intimate personal drama that draws on universal human concerns in a story that is by turns comic, bittersweet or moving. Writer/director Brett Haley’s thoughtful film has the same feel of authenticity as his previous one, I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS, in which Elliott co-starred with Blythe Danner. Like that film, THE HERO is a life-affirming film that portrays older adults as fully-rounded individuals living in this present world instead of two-dimensional types, human beings with brains, a sense of humor and romantic lives.
Lee Hayden (Sam Elliott) is an aging Hollywood actor famous for one starring role in a Western named “The Hero.” The role made him a star but turned out to be his high point, something of which Lee is acutely aware. After a long career in lesser films and on television, Lee is now reduced to mostly voice-over work linked to his iconic Western role. Lee mostly spends his days calling his agent about work or hanging out with his friend Jeremy (Nick Offerman).
Lee has a tenuous relationship with his ex-wife but is largely estranged from his daughter (Krysten Ritter). A cancer diagnosis sends Lee reeling but he keeps the information to himself. Checking in with his agent, Lee learns he is getting a “life time achievement” award from a Western fan organization which would like him to attend the ceremony. Lee brushes that aside, asking instead if there are acting job offers, but there are none. Discouraged, he does what he frequently does, drops in on Jeremy, a former actor who once played a supporting role in a TV Western starring Lee but now sells pot for a living. The two men spend the day watching old movies, smoking pot, and reliving the old days. But a chance encounter a brash younger woman named Charlotte (Laura Prepon) brings at chance at romance, and along with the medical diagnosis, makes Lee rethink his present life.
Like Haley’s I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS, THE HERO aims to disrupt our assumptions and make us rethink how we view some people.
READ THE FULL REVIEW AT WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS:
http://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2017/06/the-hero-review/
