Screen and stage actor Stanley Tucci can now add "Joe Gould's Secret" to his directing resumé ("Big Night" and "Impostors") of light hearted, critically favored pictures. With "Gould," Tucci shifts from the pure comedy genre of his past works into a more dramatically flavored, comedy laced film. Tucci achieves just about all he aspires to with this work, but sadly, that is not quite enough.
The most interesting aspect of "Gould," which I did not come to realize until the end of the film, is that it is based on a true story. In New York City, around the 1930s or 40s, Joe Mitchell (Tucci), is a writer for the New Yorker. For one of his many columns on the lives of inhabitants of the big city, Mitchell meets, interviews, and comes to befriend Joe Gould (Ian Holm - "Sweet Hereafter," "Madness of King George").
A very unique character, Gould lives as a homeless man by choice. A Harvard graduate and writer himself, Gould decided that he could best write about the people of New York City if he lived out among them. So he abandoned his home, his money, and all his possessions and just began writing. In his many years of living this way, Gould developed a quirky, extroverted personality that can quickly transform him into all sorts of different characters. Sometimes he can be polite and thoughtful, often he can burst out into tantrums, and with a few drinks in him, he can become just about anything his subconscious imagines, from an existential poet to a squawking seagull. It is never quite clear just how mentally stable he actually is.
Gould has all sorts of stories to tell, and he is happy to appease Mitchell, whom he calls his "biographer," with any of these he would like for his piece. But when it comes to the much talked-about "Oral History" that Gould has written, the details become a little more fuzzy. Gould claims that he has accumulated a massive oral history of the city of New York over many years. While it is kept in separate journals hidden away in the homes of old friends, when assembled together, Gould's O.H. is over three times as long as the Bible. It is on his Oral History that Mitchell begins his report, but as he gets to know the man better, the piece becomes more of a portrait of the man behind the history.
The secret of the film, to the best of my knowledge, is that it never really amounts to much. There is an attempt at comedy, which really only works in the scenes with Mitchell's secretary, played by Celia Weston, and in a few of Gould's drunken outbursts. Succeeding only slightly in the comedy department, Tucci strives for emotional drama in the relationships between Mitchell and Gould, Mitchell and wife (Hope Davis - "Arlington Road," "Mumford"), and Gould and his loneliness. Perhaps this was the wrong path for Tucci to take, or perhaps he should have focused on the drama more clearly to get his message across more succinctly, but either way, the film never really takes off.
Tucci certainly assembled an ample cast through which to tell his story. Anyone who has seen Atom Egoyan's heartbreaking drama "Sweet Hereafter" knows that Ian Holm is an amazing actor. Holm takes on a new, gruff image in Gould, whom he plays out wonderfully and very convincingly. Though not a very well-rounded character, Tucci plays Mitchell interestingly enough as a talented writer who often struggles to get the right words out of his mouth in conversation. Supporting roles are handled well by Hope Davis, Celia Weston, and Susan Sarandon, but they are all portraying simple enough characters that nothing beyond Weston's light hearted comic relief is ever achieved through them.
Stanley Tucci is certainly a highly skilled director, but the material he has chosen to tackle thus far in his career has not provided him the opportunity to make a great film. Nonetheless, he makes good with the material he has, making it a tough call whether or not "Gould" garners a recommendation. For those of you interested in a mixture of light hearted comedy and drama, "Joe Gould's Secret" would make a suitable rental. However if you prefer more hard hitting, gripping material, there are plenty of better choices available.
6 out of 10
Rated R for some language and brief nudity
DVD Extras: The only bonus material provided on this DVD comes in the way of the theatrical trailer, bios of Tucci and Holm, and a featurette. With this being a true story, one would think that a lot of interesting information could be compiled in the featurette. Unfortunately, it plays out as a two minute long commercial for the film, a pitiful excuse for a "featurette" if you ask me.
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