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Inside Moves
The late Richard Donner, whose directorial resume includes Superman, Scrooged, The Omen, and all four Lethal Weapon movies was in the director's chair for 1980's Inside Moves, a quietly claustrophobic and often achingly real look at a small circle of dysfunctional misfits who have found their own solace in a world that has pushed them aside.
The film stars John Savage as Roary, a depressed young man who tries to commit suicide by jumping out of a ten story window. He survives the jump and after a long recovery, starts hanging out at a dive bar that seems to cater specifically to the handicapped where he strikes up a friendship with Jerry (David Morse), an ex-basketball player sidelined by an injury but saving up for an operation that might get him back on the courts. The bumpy friendship that develops between Roary and Jerry is the crux of the drama.
Donner has a cringy but effective screenplay to work with, supplied by Oscar winner Barry Levenson and former wife Valerie Curtin, that brings such a diverse group of characters together who display such genuine affection for each other that the viewer can't help get wrapped up in the "where everybody knows your name" atmosphere at this bar, filled to the rim with people who are blind, wheelchair bound, or have lost limbs among others. It's interesting how the friendship between Roary and Jerry never affects their feelings about the rest of their friends at the bar and these friends never desert Jerry even though at a point they feel forgotten or when Roary feels betrayed by Jerry, the guys at the bar never take sides.
What was particularly impressive about this film was the attention Donner and his cast pay to the physicality of the characters. It's never forgotten that Roary jumped out of a ten story window. When he leaves the hospital, he is not walking properly and doesn't walk properly for the remainder of the running time. There's one scene with Roary where the way he moves his head during a conversation you can tell there is permanent damage to his neck and cannot turn his head normally. Or watch Jerry when he's getting dressed to challenge a pro basketball player to a one on one...Morse never forgets that Jerry is unable to bend one knee and neither does Donner who gets in up close and shows us this guy can't bend his knee.
Savage's work as Roary rivals his previous performance in The Deer Hunter, disciplined and yet quite moving. Morse, best known for playing the tortured Dr Jack Morrison on NBC;s St Elsewhere, lights up the screen as the equally tortured Jerry. There are some terrific character actors in the supporting cast including Bert Remsen as the blind Stinky and Bill Henderson as wheelchair-bound Blue. Diana Scarwid's sensitive waitress Louise earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination and the film also marked a return to the big screen for the first time in 34 years for Harold Russell, the handless war veteran who won the Best Supporting Actor of 1946 Oscar for The Best Years of our Lives. Never seen anything quite like this and the lion's share of the credit has to go to Donner.
The late Richard Donner, whose directorial resume includes Superman, Scrooged, The Omen, and all four Lethal Weapon movies was in the director's chair for 1980's Inside Moves, a quietly claustrophobic and often achingly real look at a small circle of dysfunctional misfits who have found their own solace in a world that has pushed them aside.
The film stars John Savage as Roary, a depressed young man who tries to commit suicide by jumping out of a ten story window. He survives the jump and after a long recovery, starts hanging out at a dive bar that seems to cater specifically to the handicapped where he strikes up a friendship with Jerry (David Morse), an ex-basketball player sidelined by an injury but saving up for an operation that might get him back on the courts. The bumpy friendship that develops between Roary and Jerry is the crux of the drama.
Donner has a cringy but effective screenplay to work with, supplied by Oscar winner Barry Levenson and former wife Valerie Curtin, that brings such a diverse group of characters together who display such genuine affection for each other that the viewer can't help get wrapped up in the "where everybody knows your name" atmosphere at this bar, filled to the rim with people who are blind, wheelchair bound, or have lost limbs among others. It's interesting how the friendship between Roary and Jerry never affects their feelings about the rest of their friends at the bar and these friends never desert Jerry even though at a point they feel forgotten or when Roary feels betrayed by Jerry, the guys at the bar never take sides.
What was particularly impressive about this film was the attention Donner and his cast pay to the physicality of the characters. It's never forgotten that Roary jumped out of a ten story window. When he leaves the hospital, he is not walking properly and doesn't walk properly for the remainder of the running time. There's one scene with Roary where the way he moves his head during a conversation you can tell there is permanent damage to his neck and cannot turn his head normally. Or watch Jerry when he's getting dressed to challenge a pro basketball player to a one on one...Morse never forgets that Jerry is unable to bend one knee and neither does Donner who gets in up close and shows us this guy can't bend his knee.
Savage's work as Roary rivals his previous performance in The Deer Hunter, disciplined and yet quite moving. Morse, best known for playing the tortured Dr Jack Morrison on NBC;s St Elsewhere, lights up the screen as the equally tortured Jerry. There are some terrific character actors in the supporting cast including Bert Remsen as the blind Stinky and Bill Henderson as wheelchair-bound Blue. Diana Scarwid's sensitive waitress Louise earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination and the film also marked a return to the big screen for the first time in 34 years for Harold Russell, the handless war veteran who won the Best Supporting Actor of 1946 Oscar for The Best Years of our Lives. Never seen anything quite like this and the lion's share of the credit has to go to Donner.