Older Doesn’t Always Mean Wiser: “Nobody’s Fool”

Why’d I watch a 1994 character piece called Nobody’s Fool?Partly it had to do with the death in May of writer/director Robert Benton,whose down-to-earth work I’d long admired. As a complete unknown, he co-wrote(with David Newman) Bonnie and Clyde, one of the most remarkable filmsof the remarkable film year 1967. Over a decade later he both wrote anddirected Kramer vs. Kramer, winning himself two Oscars. And there wasanother Oscar in 1984, honoring his original script for Places in the Heart,a film based—I’m told—on his own Texas family. He directed that onetoo.  

 Watching Nobody Fool was my salute to Benton’s talentfor making the everyday seem special and unique. It was also my tribute toco-star Jessica Tandy, for whom this was a final film. (The original BlancheDuBois died at age 85, just before the film’s release.)  Many others inthe film’s cast are also no longer with us: it’s particularly poignant to seePhilip Seymour Hoffman in the small but goofy role of a small town cop who’s alittle too quick on the trigger. But of course the biggest loss has been thatof star Paul Newman, who—then just shy of 70 years of age—was nominated yetagain for a Best Actor Oscar for this role. (He lost to Tom Hanks in ForrestGump, but at this late point in his career Newman had already finallysnagged a statuette for The Color of Money.) He would be nominated oncemore for 2002’s Road to Perdition, voiced a role in Disney’s Cars in2006, and passed from the scene in 2008, at age 83. 

 Nobody’s Fool is poignant, but also quite funny. (Atleast some of the credit should go to novelist Richard Russo, who wrote thenovel on which the film is based.) Set in the dead of winter in an upstate NewYork hamlet where everybody knows everybody’s business, it focuses on Donald“Sully” Sullivan, a sometimes-construction worker with a bum knee, anappreciation for poker, and a boyish enjoyment of playing tricks on his boss(Bruce Willis). He may seem happy-go-lucky, but there are dark memories of adrunken father and of his own greatest misstep: walking out on a wife and youngson many years before. Though he only moved across town, Sully and his son havenever re-connected. But the son is back now, with kids and problems of his own,and Sully finds himself in the odd position of needing to act like a grown-up.It’s a layered and thoroughly fascinating performance.  

 Part of what makes the film feel so lived-in is the castingof veteran actors who really help the fictional North Bath, New York feel likea community full of lovable eccentrics. There is, for instance, the ratherinept lawyer (Gene Saks) who puts up his artificial leg as his stake in a pokergame. Bruce Willis, who reportedly took a major pay cut for the chance to actwith Newman, is memorable as the construction boss (and feckless womanizer) whomakes Sully’s life miserable but owns a really classy red snow-blower thatbecomes a running joke. As Willis’s neglected wife, Melanie Griffith is herappealing self. 

 What’s really striking about Newman’s character is that—forall his reputation as a ne’er-do-well—he turns out to be one of the kindestsouls in town. It’s his kindness that Jessica Tandy sees in him when sherefuses to stop being his landlady, despite her own son’s bluster. Yes, he’s anuisance, but we sure need more of his ilk.