Paul Newman should do endorsements for the AARP. At 70, he's still got it--and if you don't know what "it" is, you probably haven't heard of Paul Newman either.
His new movie, Nobody's Fool, has been almost universally hailed by critics as one of Newman's finest performances, and one that is likely to put him in contention for an Oscar--amidst such competition as John Travolta, Ralph Fiennes and Tom Hanks. And in this reviewer's humble opinion, he should win hands down.
In Fool, he plays 60-year-old Donald "Sully" Sullivan, a small-town construction worker with a bum knee who can't quite seem to decide what to do with his life. He walked out on his wife shortly after their first son was born, and has been, in some strangely Freudian sense, running from responsibility ever since.
At one point in the movie, Sully's landlady (and eighth-grade teacher), played with impish spark by the late Jessica Tandy, asks him if he's sorry that he hasn't done more "with the life God gave [him]," to which Sully answers simply, "Now and then." That, in a nutshell, is what the movie wants you to think about.
There are no simple answers--not for Sully, not for his estranged son, not for his boss' wife (played surprising well by the usually insipid Melanie Griffith). All of the characters are muddling through life as best they can--there are no clear heroes and no clear villains, and the movie refuses to judge anyone.
Nobody's Fool works because the script is excellent, the acting is superb and the film doesn't succumb to empty moralizing. And besides--it's worth the cost of the ticket to see the look on Sully's face when Griffith's character, in a moment of flirtatious abandon, reveals her... sensitive side.
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