Runtime: 110 minutes
Directed by: Louis Malle
Starring: Andre Gregory, Wallace Shawn
From: Saga Productions, Inc./The Andre Company
This is another film I’ve known of for years yet before last night hadn’t experienced it before. After all, one aspect is that for years afterward the movie was referenced in a joking fashion due to its very nature of it being in essence a two person play where two colleagues meet up after years away from each other and talk to each other for almost two hours.
Much of this movie is devoted to just Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn talking to each other; they claim that this is not 100% an accurate representation of their lives… despite them playing characters named Andre Gregory & Wallace Shawn, and the fact that like described in the film, Gregory was a playwright who left the United States because he wasn’t happy with life there so he did many esoteric activities around the world. Andre describes these events and while it’s all highbrow and it is easy to call those activities New Age, he’s such a storyteller that I was fascinated by those tales, and Shawn’s reactions to them.
“Wally” doesn’t agree with everything his pal says so that sparks conversation, a back and forth. To reveal much more would ruin the journey for newcomers so I’ll refrain. It wasn’t exactly filmed dynamically by Louis Malle (one day I’ll discuss a more traditional film by him) but that was perfect for this tete-a-tete between two intellectuals. What an odd turn of events it was that Gregory occasionally did acting gigs, and what a variety of gigs; everything from Demolition Man and Celebrity to The Mosquito Coast & The Shadow.
Overall, for a movie literally full of dialogue, it personally held me at rapt attention the entire duration.
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