Danny Collins: Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
After a lifetime at the top of the music charts, Danny Collins (Al Pacino) just can’t give up his hard-living ways. But when he receives a never-delivered letter written to him 40 years earlier by John Lennon urging him to stay true to his heart, Danny embarks on a quest to try to rediscover his family, his talent and the love he abandoned on his way to success.
Tales of redemption are always a good way to get the audience on the films’ side and it doesn’t hurt to have Al Pacino leading the charge. Seeing a man’s journey to reconnect with his son is sweet but sad at the same time. It’s one of those situations where you see a man try really hard to make progress but at the same time you can’t fault his son for being very cold because of a father not being around. Collins begins to throw money at his son and his family and I just started to cringe but that’s what made me want to watch more. You can see the son going on an emotional roller coaster the entire time, going from trust to mistrust to trust again. Ultimately things worked out for the best and it gave you an ending that was hopeful and was a bright spot in an otherwise very sad situation. There was a slight love story in there with Annette Bening as well but I didn’t feel that part was strong enough. The film tended to get a little slow at moments but it wasn’t anything that would cause you to lose attention. Pacino was fantastic as usual and showed that he still has it after all these years. Jennifer Garner is a favorite of mine simply because she is so loveable. She flashes that smile and that’s pretty much it but at the same time she can get really serious really fast and it’s completely believable. Although the film is mainly about the Danny Collins character I thought Bobby Cannavale was fantastic at going head to head with Pacino. The chemistry that they had was electric and I loved every second that they were on screen together. This film was entertaining but on a totally different level than what you might expect which is good and the last scene definitely had me holding my breath until the very last second. This may fly under the radar for some but I do suggest that if you watch it if you get a chance. 7/10
Special Features:
Behind the Scenes of Danny Collins – A small feature that shows the typical BTS stuff as well as interview snippets from the cast and crew.
Danny Collins — Album Covers Through the Years – Fictional album covers from the title character of the film. As simple as this was it was actually pretty neat.
