#LifeItself Movies are hardly ever about what they seem to be about. Look at a movie that a lot of people love, and you will find something profound, no matter how silly the film may seem. The real subjects of Waynes World are innocence and friendship. Thats what you get for your seven dollars. – Roger Ebert LIFE ITSELF is NOT a movie about one amazingly strong human being, fighting through painful adversity and being brave enough to showcase those most vulnerable moments to an audience. It is a movie about TWO such people: Roger Ebert and his wife, Chaz. Roger and Chaz opened up their lives to director Steve James’ watchful camera during some of the most disturbing and troubling parts of the descent of Roger’s health, and LIFE ITSELF is the unblinking, inspiring and real result of that undertaking. A film of such vitality, insight and spirit that you may find yourself still thinking about it days, weeks, months later. Because LIFE ITSELF is such an immersive experience, you may also be surprised at the empathy and care you might feel as a viewer being privy to some generally private moments, such as the Eberts’ being visited by their grandchildren who so obviously love this man and so unabashedly display that love even while the camera rolls. And that love is clearly, touchingly reciprocated. Though the film jaunts back and forth between Roger’s health struggles and his early life and career highlights, it all unfolds in such an organic way that it is never jarring; the pacing of the movie is deliberate but entertaining. This is all despite the prescient inevitability of Roger’s continued decline and passing. It doesn’t revel in sadness or elevate it’s subject to a lionizing level, though it is unflinchingly shot and edited by the absolute demand of Ebert himself, who at one point tells James that he doesn’t want to be a part of a documentary that leaves out the truth. All of the brilliance of Ebert’s writing and filmic expositions are on display as well, reminding us also of the sheer power of movies as an art form and giving us appreciation of his mastery in his field. Roger’s love/hate relationship with his one-time “enemy”, the also astute critic Gene Siskel, is chronicled in some detail. Their decades long friendship is explored through absolutely engaging and engrossing clips, particularly some disarming “behind the scenes” moments from their sturdy TV show. During one of the most moving scenes of the movie, we learn that Roger had the utmost respect and highest regard for Siskel. Gene’s widow reads aloud from a letter that Roger wrote to her proclaiming that he never felt more close to a man than he did to Gene. Of course, there are MANY compelling and touching moments in this film, including stories and recollections from Hollywood heavyweights like Martin Scorsese and Werner Herzog. Herzog provides another of the movie’s most weighty moments with a brief but emotionally rendered memory, calling Roger a “soldier of cinema”. Still, the most “AHA” moment for me came during a story told about Roger by aspiring filmmaker Ava DuVernay, who briefly met Ebert as a child. She points out that even though it is hard to trust another person to dictate whether or not your film has value, filmmakers knew that Ebert was going to take their movies seriously and try to provide some “cultural nuance” for his stance. That sums up why so many people checked to see what Roger thought about a film before they plunked down the cash to go see it; we trusted him to be honest about what he saw and to interpret his take with depth. Most famously perhaps, this was on display through his positive review of BENJI THE HUNTED, a film that Siskel hated. Roger defended it on the grounds that children were likely to really enjoy it, another of those small instances that is humorously touched on in LIFE ITSELF. But in the end, despite the movie’s refreshing insistence on including details that don’t just paint Ebert as a saint who happened to watch a lot of movies, there is no way to ignore that LIFE ITSELF is peppered with a dozen or more small fragments of heartbreak. Most of these include the bittersweet gazes into the love of Roger and Chaz, often demonstrated by her openness and willingness to share Roger’s story with us while simultaneously attempting to protect him. At one point, she talks about how strong and determined he is; she could just as well be describing herself. LIFE ITSELF is ultimately a love story. Between Roger and film. Roger and Gene. And most importantly, Roger and Chaz. Roger and Chaz were married when Roger was fifty years old, a fact that he regarded as a near miracle. He proclaimed that it saved him from the fate of being a lesser and unfulfilled man. It also provided him the reason for his dogged determination to persevere, ultimately. In LIFE ITSELF, we see the story of the world’s most famous movie critic, and we follow along through his many career triumphs and hear stories from a host of friends and admirers. But movies are hardly ever what they seem to be about, and the real subjects of LIFE ITSELF are deep affection and the startlingly strong bond between a man and a woman.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 10:01:22 +0000
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