NOBODY’S FOOL (1994)

Nobody’s Fool is a miraculous film; the kind of movie that will no doubt be referred to as a ‘little gem’ by some of the lucky few who come across it, but which is so much more than that. This quaint tale of a crotchety old man in a small town full of distinctive characters who have snarky conversations with one another feels destined for the kind of feel-good, sentimental garbage that is trying too hard to tug at the heartstrings every few seconds. In virtually any other movie that revolves around this concept, protagonist Donald ‘Sully’ Sullivan (Paul Newman) would be portrayed as an unendingly grumpy senior citizen whose cantankerous attitude has made him a menace to his local community, but who gradually learns to love again in a risk-free, utterly predictable experience.

Instead, Robert Benton’s film takes these clichés and shoots them to pieces, crafting a delicate experience that balances tone better than almost any other movie. The Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) writer and director struck comedy-drama gold here with a tale that effortlessly blends both of these genres, to the point where it never feels as if one ends and the other begins. But what is even more impressive is how attuned Nobody’s Fool is to the rhythms of everyday life. Sully, who freelances in construction, has his fair share of adversarial relationships, the most bitter of which is with local contractor Carl Roebuck (Bruce Willis), and yet even when the pair trade insults—which gradually get more venomous the longer they are around one another—all is forgotten the following day.

This is an undeniably quaint story, and yet it takes a huge amount of bravery to let this film’s plot unfold almost as gently and simply as reality itself, where long-time grudges do not get in the way of good banter or moments of connection, and a crushing verbal blow is not enough to provoke deep rifts in the movie’s fractured—but oddly compatible—relationships. Sully is often insulting others or being insulted, and yet one gets the sense that on some level he enjoys all of these people’s company, even those that only hold a minor role in his life. His interlocutors also appear to secretly enjoy these verbal jousts, and yet somehow, whether it’s down to a stroke of luck or pure genius, there is nothing hokey or overly chummy about these relationships.

Every character in Nobody’s Fool is unique, even those that only utter a few lines and are never seen outside of one setting (like Margo Martindale’s Birdy, the surly barmaid who acts like she’s displeased by everyone and everything, but who clearly gets a kick out of the company and her performatively negative attitude). There is also the stunningly incompetent, one-legged lawyer Wirf (Gene Saks), the just-as-useless police officer Raymer (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and Carl’s long-suffering wife Toby (Melanie Griffith), who finds some much-needed satisfaction from putting up with her husband’s infidelity by lightly flirting with Sully. These are just a few of the distinctive, idiosyncratic, and very realistic characters that sketch out this film’s setting, the fictional village of New Bath.

All of these characters have a lived-in quality that allows you to easily imagine them existing outside of the confines of this movie’s plot. These are men and women who have known each other their entire lives, the vast majority of whom will never leave this place until the end of their days. There is little that is triumphant about such a lifestyle, at least in storytelling terms, but Benton uncovers countless ways to instil Sully’s life with meaning. Though much of this plot feels delightfully shapeless, lending an unpredictable air to a story that mirrors life’s unpredictability, the main narrative thread that is gradually unfurled is Sully’s relationship with his adult son and grandchild.

Sully comes across his son Peter (Dylan Walsh) by accident, after the latter stops his car at the side of the road to let him enter after Sully was attempting to thumb a lift. This emerging plotline appears from nowhere, and Benton is clever enough not to let it invade the rest of this film, carefully weaving it into the many complicated relationships that Sully has in his life, almost all of which are fairly contentious but oddly affectionate all the same.

Sully is a wise man, and yet he’s profoundly foolish too, self-sabotaging in ways that would be truly aggravating if they were committed by anyone else. But in his case he has an understandable fatalistic streak. It can’t actually be understood, not on a logical basis, but it’s a consistent character flaw that is portrayed superbly by Newman. The veteran actor does a wonderful thing in this movie; he sublimely conveys, without it needing to be said directly, that Sully is just as clueless as the viewer is regarding his entire personality. And yet, his character makes sense; in fact, it’s hard to imagine him making any different decisions than the ones he doggedly sticks to in Nobody’s Fool.

Anyone who’s watched a decent number of movies will be aware of stories about fathers who abandon their children, which often focus on old men full of regret who look to atone for their ways, and find at least some success in these ventures. In the most bare-bones plot description of this movie that is not entirely inaccurate, but what such a descriptor misses is how authentically Nobody’s Fool conveys these developments. Sully does not appear to have a single regret over his actions at first, and maybe more importantly, has seemingly no time for atonement.

It wasn’t like he spent the years since abandoning Peter constantly thinking about his son and what kind of a person he was slowly growing into; his departure only meant that he moved five blocks away from the boy and his mother. In some ways this is an even worse mark on Sully’s character, as he had endless chances at redemption throughout his son’s life and consistently ignored them. But although he never tried to facilitate a return in Peter’s life, instead being gifted that opportunity through pure luck, Sully grasps this shot at reconciliation, wisely using their time spent together to forge a relationship with his grandson Will (Alexander Goodwin).

Sully doesn’t transform into a new man; Nobody’s Fool is far too serious about who this character is to produce an easily recognisable, archetypal envisioning of him and his emotional journey. In many ways Sully is the same man he always was in the movie’s final moments, but that is not to say that he has not gained an invaluable perspective on himself, his life, and those closest to him.

Howard Shore’s soundtrack is the one element of the film that dips into sentimentalism, but luckily these compositions are beautiful enough to earn their repetitive, heartfelt beats. There are also some disarmingly emotional moments here, like when Sully confronts the way his father treated him and his mother, finally offering insight into why he turned out this way. Moments like these are not breakthroughs; they are simple reminders of the other ways that life can be lived, where everyday burdens can be forgotten for just a moment, and the distant, looming shadows of Sully’s psyche are given room to breathe. It’s telling that he discusses this with Peter, where this poignant conversation is just as much about what is unsaid, whether that is a justification of why he turned out to be a bad father, and an acknowledgement of that failure on his part.

But change is an awfully slow process, so it’s not surprising that in a later scene, after blowing off Raymer’s insistence that his repeated traffic violations will one day lead to action being taken against him, Sully ignores a clear-cut opportunity not to escalate the situation any further when he’s stopped once again by the feckless officer. He even says himself that a better man would get out of the car mere seconds before he slowly drives towards the stationary Raymer,who stands dumbfounded in front of his stationary vehicle. Like many of this protagonist’s actions, it’s more than a little frustrating. But as we, and Peter (who is sitting in the front passenger seat beside him), come to realise, you would not want him any other way.

Sully has a number of endearing characteristics, making it clear why some of the village’s residents, like Toby, treasure his company. The pair’s sly bantering and wistful talk of running away together is touching, especially given that they take these sentiments to heart, if only because they are a pipe dream too disconnected from the regular disappointment in their lives to seriously buy into. ‘Maybe one day’, they always appear to be telling each other, even when they know full well what that sentiment really means. Sully is a man nearing 70 who is still burdened enough by financial trouble that he has to do construction work just to get by; Benton is well aware that this is not the kind of story teeming with unbridled optimism. At the same time, it’s too dignified, and its characters are too proud, to look towards pity either.

Despite doing reasonably well at the box office and accruing critical acclaim, Nobody’s Fool remains criminally underseen. Though it isn’t a Christmas movie per se, the film has a winter setting and is imbued with a genuine warmth for its protagonist and humanity in general that recalls the sentiment underpinning that festive period.

Perhaps its characters are too grey, and its plotting too lifelike, for it to ever go down as a Christmas classic, but it’s a simple and pure and true film that feels as if it should have been made a thousand times over by many different filmmakers, yet somehow never was. With this film, Benton didn’t create a work of social realism, yet his insights into the human condition are just as revealing, and teased out as delicately, as if he had done exactly that.

Newman is masterful, knowing not to play Sully any more sympathetically than what the script affords of this protagonist. All of the various shades of this man that the veteran actor brings to the role seamlessly create a full portrait of what he represents in this town. From Griffith to Hoffman to Willis, this is a star-studded cast, making its relative non-existence in the public consciousness even more surprising. All three actors are excellent here, particularly Willis, who took a giant pay cut to appear in Nobody’s Fool when he was at the peak of his film career, working under the SAG-AFTRA pay scale of $1,400 per week. As Carl, a man you love to dislike, he’s a delight, though that word could be used for just about any aspect of this lovely film, which wears its small scale on its sleeves and continually touches greatness as it tricks you into thinking you’re watching a modest work of art.

USA | 1994 | 110 MINUTES | 1.85:1 | COLOUR | ENGLISH

Cast & Crew

director: Robert Benton.
writer: Robert Benton (based on the novel by Richard Russo).
starring: Paul Newman, Jessica Tandy, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, Dylan Walsh, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Gene Saks, Josef Sommer & Philip Seymour Hoffman.