Measure of a Man
Directed by: Jim Loach
Written by: David Scearce - Based on the novel "One Fat Summer" by Robert Lipsyte
Starring: Blake Cooper, Donald Sutherland, Judy Greer, Beau Knapp, Danielle Rose Russell, Liana Liberato, Luke Wilson, Luke Benward, Sam Keeley, Ryan Boudreau, Brian Faherty
Comedy/Drama - 100 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 11 May 2018
Written by: David Scearce - Based on the novel "One Fat Summer" by Robert Lipsyte
Starring: Blake Cooper, Donald Sutherland, Judy Greer, Beau Knapp, Danielle Rose Russell, Liana Liberato, Luke Wilson, Luke Benward, Sam Keeley, Ryan Boudreau, Brian Faherty
Comedy/Drama - 100 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 11 May 2018
For every Baby Houseman experiencing a sexual awakening in an upstate New York summer getaway ala Dirty Dancing, there are a dozen Bobby Marks’s dreading the summertime blues. Extended summer vacations full of sunbathing, sports, and socializing are torture for the overweight kid who dare not take his shirt off. Bobby’s sport is evading the local bullies and rolling his eyes at the antics of the physically gifted Adonis set. Adapted from the novel One Fat Summer and time-shifted from the ‘50s to the ‘70s, Measure of a Man joins the never-ending chorus of coming-of-age films and does nothing to separate itself from the pack.
Watching a film set the ‘70s in 2018, the most foreign part of the experience is not the lack of technology, the clothes, or the tunes - it’s the notion that a family would take a vacation for a couple months during the summer. Nobody does that anymore, not even the well-to-do elite from New York City, the main clientele of this particular rural getaway. Apparently, families 40 or 50 years ago had less things to do where they could make a gigantic hole in their lives to “summer” in a place not their home. Do non-retired people still “summer”?
Watching a film set the ‘70s in 2018, the most foreign part of the experience is not the lack of technology, the clothes, or the tunes - it’s the notion that a family would take a vacation for a couple months during the summer. Nobody does that anymore, not even the well-to-do elite from New York City, the main clientele of this particular rural getaway. Apparently, families 40 or 50 years ago had less things to do where they could make a gigantic hole in their lives to “summer” in a place not their home. Do non-retired people still “summer”?
David Scearce’s adaptation of Robert Lipsyte’s novel employs Bobby (Blake Cooper, The Maze Runner) to show us family tensions, including the women’s movement, economic uncertainty, townies vs. tourists, and social awkwardness; someone gets a nose job and is then considered a better person. Bobby and his mother (Judy Greer, Ant-Man) are closer than Bobby and his father (Luke Wilson, Rock Dog). His dad is always quick with a reference to Bobby’s rotundness and then alienates himself to his family and us by disappearing back to the city - adultery perhaps? Mom plans to spend the summer reading something called “law books” as she plans to attend law school in the fall to help further feminism.
Somehow, mom is always absent just long enough for Bobby’s sister (Liana Liberato, Novitiate) to experiment with a possible teenage pregnancy with the club’s resident Patrick Swayze and to miss all the tell-tale signs of intense bullying. The town’s 20-something delinquent (Beau Knapp, Death Wish), whose backstory consists of a judge telling him either Vietnam or jail, tortures Bobby. The townies, including the local constabulary, despise the summertime interlopers, and appear ignorant of the facets of a tourism economy. One long summer without these tourists would remind the locals how nice outside money is to prop up the middle of nowhere.
But Measure of a Man is above all a coming-of-age movie, it’s what the title is all about. Bobby will arrive a child and depart a man. What spurs the transformation? Yard work for Donald Sutherland (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2). Sutherland plays the local rich grump who not so much mentors Bobby, but tells him to stop what he’s doing, go back, and do it again. This includes speaking, negotiating, punctuality, and mowing the lawn. Sutherland also has a backstory never discussed, but visual cues and cryptic allusions spell it out for us. I believe an estate the size Bobby must mow, rake, clip, sweep, and wash would make a man out of anybody; that is yard work only a teenager would be dumb enough to tackle.
The main benefit to shifting the timeframe out of the ‘50s to the ‘70s is the music. Measure of a Man is full of Dylan, America, and a bunch of the popular folk canon - perfect for the brooding and contemplative 14 year-old. Unfortunately, director Jim Loach’s product comes off lopsided. There is too much bully antagonist at the expense of Bobby’s relationship with Donald Sutherland and a scandalous oversight of Bobby’s good friendship with the girl next door (Danielle Rose Russell) who disappears for most of the film for the nose job. How can the boy morph into the man he is supposed to be without the proper dose of angst over the opposite sex? It’s a case of too much Deliverance (there is actually a squealing pig scene) and, I can’t believe I am writing this, too little Dirty Dancing.
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