Danny Collins (2014)

  This is a cute, middling film.  It's not terrible, it's not great.  It's very middle-of-the-road, especially for actors of this caliber, but work is work, right?

Danny Collins (Al Pacino) achieved rock star status after starting as a humble folk musician.  As a birthday present, his manager (Christopher Plummer) gives him a letter written to Danny from John Lennon in 1971 but never delivered.  The letter was sold to a memorabilia collector instead.  Forty years later, Danny finally reads what was written to him and vows to make changes.  He cancels his "greatest hits" tour, gives up booze and drugs, and camps out in a New Jersey Hilton to write original songs for the first time in forever, much to the consternation of the hotel manager (Annette Benning).  New Jersey is not just as far away from L.A. as he can manage, it's also the home of his estranged son (Bobby Cannavale), daughter-in-law (Jennifer Gardner), and granddaughter (Giselle Eisenberg).  

There is nothing really new in this variant of an aging-rocker-mid-life-crisis tale except the John Lennon letter, which was based on a real story.  Steve Tiltson, a Welsh folk rocker, actually got a letter from Lennon 34 years too late, because someone at the magazine it was sent to sold it instead of delivering it.  Tiltson never reached the Barry Manilow-esque levels depicted in the film, but he has had a 40-year career in the music, so he's doing all right.

This feels like a small, indie film that inexplicably has a cast full of Oscar and Emmy nominees and winners.  Like Barack Obama delivering a middle school book report.  Nice, but a little overkill.

It's currently streaming on Kanopy.