DVD Review: Best Sellers

Best Sellers
(DVD Best)

Michael Caine and Aubrey Plaza turn in bravura performances in what may very well be Michael Caine’s last feature film — he was quoted in interviews as saying it was likely his final film.

 

Aubrey Plaza plays Lucy Stanbridge, a young woman who has inherited her late father’s publishing house, only to discover that it is on its last legs, and she is being aggressively pursued by buyers for a larger publisher wishing to absorb and liquidate her family business. Looking for something, anything, that could save and reinvigorate her floundering business, when Lucy’s assistant discovers that legendary eccentric/reclusive author owes her father a new work, Lucy decides that Harris Shaw (Michael Caine) is her last hope. Unfortunately, Harris Shaw hasn’t had a new published work in decades, and has no desire to go on a road trip to promote any new work he might come up with.

 

Lucy manages to guilt Harris into finishing and submitting a new work, but the bulk of this film is the awkward, painful road trip Lucy and Harris go on to dive bars across the country, where Harris uses every opportunity he has to sabotage Lucy’s promotions. But the longer they’re together, the more this odd couple starts to understand each other and bond.

 

The DVD box promotes Best Sellers as “heartwarming”, and the ending does have a good upturn. But these two characters are both bitter, desperate, emotionally-damaged people and watching them crash and burn over weeks on the road was a bit painful. None-the-less, the two actors turn in stunning performances, and if Caine has to retire after this one, he gave one of the best performances in his life to close out his acting career — as a cranky, curmudgeonly, profane and lonely old man.

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for this film )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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