Max Rose was a jazz pianist who recorded several albums. He's now 87, and his wife, Eva, with whom he shared 65 years of marriage, has just died. His granddaughter Annie supports him in his time of grief, while his relationship with his son Christopher is strained. However, Max makes a discovery that forces him to rethink his relationship with Eva: engraved in a compact, he finds a love note from a stranger. There's even a date: on that day, Max had left to make a record.
Jerry Lewis is the same age as Max Rose, and that undoubtedly means something. Returning to the screen after an absence dating back to 1995 ( The Comedian ), one of the most important comedians in the history of cinema confirms the popular saying that behind the smiling mask there's usually a sad, or at least melancholic, man. Because this film (structured more like television than cinema) is driven, rather than by a reflection on death, as the opening line suggests, by the bitter sense of a look back at the past that seems to offer no certainty. Max, who has always been faithful to Eva, is now tormented by the suspicion of a betrayal that allegedly occurred way back in 1959.
He needs to know, as his son puts him in a retirement home and sells him his house to pay for his upbringing. Above all, he needs to know if he truly meant as much to someone as this someone (his wife) meant to him. Perhaps he wasn't a good father (although he blames his son for this flaw), but he wishes he had been a good husband, just as he certainly is a grandfather, beloved by his granddaughter Annie, who cares for her with an almost maternal affection. Jerry Lewis, who finds an excellent foil in Kerry Bishé, is not afraid to highlight the sullenness and even the hidden resentments of an elderly man, lending his character both fragility and determination.
The music of the slightly younger Michel Legrand, whom the actor chose to play alongside him, supports his performance. The film's closing credits then offer glimpses of his past, revealing his passion for music and further underscoring the bond between actor and character. Max and Jerry are, after all, two sides of the same coin.
(Giancarlo Zappoli)
Directed by Daniel Noah. A film with Jerry Lewis , Kerry Bishé , Peter Bogdanovich , Dean Stockwell , Kevin Pollak .
