Diminished Capacity
Sometimes what you lose is not as important as what you find.
In this delightfully poignant and bittersweet comedy, a newspaper editor, Cooper (Matthew Broderick) held back at work after a debilitating concussion travels home to rural Missouri to visit his senile Uncle (Alan Alda) who is on the verge of losing his home. When a valuable baseball card is thrown inso the mix, these two men along with a motley group of hometown friends, in cluding Cooper's highschool sweetheart, (Virginia Madsen), head to a memorabilia expo to make the deal of a century. Based on the critically acclaimed novel by Sherwood Kiraly, Diminished Capacity has been hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "a comedy with a bounty of charm."
Member Reviews
Diminished Capacity - Jude
A mildly humorous movie, with an excellent cast that were under utilized. I must admit I was disappointed. With such a great cast I expected more. The story line was interesting and original, but you knew from the first that this would be a highly predictable plot - and it was.Solid Enough Cast But A Largely Disappointing Story - revsdd
This features a "B" list cast of actors (Matthew Broderick, Virginia Madsen and Alan Alda) - none megastars, but all solid actors - who, as you would expect, put on decent enough performances. The problem is that the story misses its potential. I haven't read the book. Maybe this worked better on paper, but on screen this was lacking. Broderick played Cooper, an editor for a Chicago newspaper who suffers a head injury, and then is called away himself to help care for his uncle (Alda) who's in the early stages of dementia. Madsen is an old flame of Cooper's with whom he reconnects in his hometown. All three were fine in these roles, but this movie had two directions in which it could have gone, did a little bit of both and, ultimately, because it had no focus on either, was a disappointment.
This could have been successful as a light-hearted comedy; a humorous look at dealing with the problems of dementia. Alda captured that well; he was believable as a dementia victim, and there were things like his fish-writing obsession that could have made this touchingly funny, but those moments were few and far between. Or, this could have gone the route of emotional drama, as we watch Alda's character of Rollie (and those around him) deal with his decline, but again those moments were few and far between. There was a moment when the movie seemed to make a choice - the powerful scene when Rollie is missing and Cooper finds him in anguish in the bathroom at the card show; lost, confused and embarrassed. But that moment passes. Instead, the story focuses on an old 1909 Cubs baseball card that Rollie's grandfather gave him as a keepsake and that he now wants to sell. Even that could have been touching enough, but the card ends up being used primarily as a prop for staging slapstick humour, especially the ridiculous "fight" scene at the end.
Burdened with unnecessary characters (especially Donny, but even Madsen's Charlotte) this was disappointing.Nice movie - Dakos
With a nice cast and some nice character acting by Alan Alda, this film was good to se. No disappointments here with the storyline as it is something fresh and new. A Chicago newspaper columnist who recently suffered a concussion goes back to his native St. Louis to take care of an uncle who raised him. He soon finds his uncle is a little harder to take care of and when he is told that his grandfather left his uncle an old Cubs baseball card from the early 1900's they are both eager to sell it and cash in. Selling it involves going back to Chicago for a trade show. What transpires in Chicago leaves nothing to the imagination. A good watch on a movie night.
Member Reviews
Read All...
Diminished Capacity - Jude
A mildly humorous movie, with an excellent cast that were under utilized. I must admit I was disappointed. With such a great cast I expected more. The story line was interesting and original, but you knew from the first that this would be a highly predictable ...Solid Enough Cast But A Largely Disappointing Story - revsdd
This features a "B" list cast of actors (Matthew Broderick, Virginia Madsen and Alan Alda) - none megastars, but all solid actors - who, as you would expect, put on decent enough performances. The problem is that the story misses its potential. I haven't read ...Nice movie - Dakos
With a nice cast and some nice character acting by Alan Alda, this film was good to se. No disappointments here with the storyline as it is something fresh and new. A Chicago newspaper columnist who recently suffered a concussion goes back to his native St. ...