Duke Johnson is a visionary filmmaker who is aware of the adaptability of the cinematic image. His collaboration with Charlie Kaufman on the Oscar-nominated film "Anomalisa" is primarily evidence of this understanding. (He also contributed to the stunning "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" from 2020). Johnson brings his vision to his first solo full-length live-action project, an unexpected adaptation of Donald Westlake’s novel Memory, which was written in the ‘60s but published in 2010.
Johnson finds it difficult to transform the amnesiac actor's story into an absurd investigation of identity. However, the always-stellar André Holland once again adds so much to a production, imbuing every scene with a deep vein of melancholy. Imagine being sad and not being sure why because your sense of place in the world has been shattered. "The Actor" sometimes succumbs to the fact that no one is as interested in your last night's dream as you are; its draggy midsection makes it difficult to remain engaged with its ideas. But it’s an undeniably haunting piece of work, a story that’s out of place and time in a world that’s like our own but not quite. It would have pleased Rod Serling. Holland plays Paul Cole, who is seen being attacked in the first few minutes by a man who has found Paul with his wife. Even this encounter is shot as though it were taking place on stage rather than in real life. Paul was in a production that was traveling, so when he wakes up, he is far from home and has no idea who he was before the attack. He gets a job at a tannery to pay for food and lodging while stuck in the Midwest without enough money to even buy a train ticket before he can even think about getting home. Gemma Chan is the one who catches Paul's eye in a movie theater, but Johnson is playing Lynchian tricks from the beginning, having different characters played by the same actors, like Toby Jones and Tracey Ullman. She seems to be the only person who sees him clearly. When Paul returns to New York City, he discovers that he may not really want to discover who he used to be. These initial scenes of palpable confusion that are punctuated by instant attraction give way to an excessively long midsection. A scene in which his friends recount a moment of alleged humor involving an unhoused person that Paul identifies as cruelty is a crucial one. It's not just about who Paul was; it's also about the kind of person he used to be before he changed. Could Paul use this incident as an opportunity to start over and become a better person than before? Could it provide Paul with a new role in life? “The Actor” was reportedly filmed on a sound stage in Budapest, and that enhances the film’s very intentionally dreamlike quality, both in Joe Pasarelli’s gauzy cinematography and the theatrical production design, one that seems to take to heart the idea that all the world’s a stage. Johnson, as he did in "Anomalisa," seems to be asking what that even means, especially for someone who has made a living shifting his identity to fit a new part. Holland captures a man trying to get a grip on reality with vivid detail. What if this is just an opportunity to become the character in real life that he was always meant to play anyway?
It's clear that 123movies is full of ideas, and I sometimes wished for a more firm hand from the director to combine those ideas into something more fluid. Scenes have a habit of ending abruptly, and themes feel discarded before they can be fully explored. Again, it lacks consistent momentum because it is almost like a dream. God bless Holland, whose expressive shoulders carry this film. There’s a scene near the end in which he’s just conveying different emotions into the mirror, trying to find the one that fits, and even here, Holland makes subtle choices. He always does. "The Actor" has a subtlety that lasts long after the movie is over, like smoke in the air.