Butler's Cinema Scene

Michael Douglas

“FRANKLIIN” (Apple+): 

 I love just about everything about “Franklin”…except for Franklin himself.

So let’s be brutally honest here: Michael Douglas as Benjamin Franklin? Just doesn’t work.

I’m not saying Douglas makes the series unwatchable. It’s not that off-putting.

But Michael Douglas the movie star is here wrestling with Michael Douglas the actor…and the movie star wins.  More on that later.

This 8-part series (the writers are Kirk Ellis and Howard Korder, adapting Stacy Schiff’s non-fiction A Great Improvisation; all episodes are directed by TV vet Timothy Van Patten) takes us to Paris in the late 1770s.  

Inventor/journalist/all-round Renaissance man Benjamin Franklin, now 71, has been dispatched by the rebellious American colonies to seek France’s aid in the fight for freedom.

Accompanied by his teenaged grandson/secretary Temple (Noah Jupe), the wily old Franklin gets to work seducing French society, determined to secure money, arms and men for the American cause. Meanwhile British agents are bent on undermining those efforts.

“Franklin’s” scripts are the very model of effective historic drama. The intrigues of the French court are presented in all their complexity (the French characters speak French with English subtitles); meanwhile more personal dramas are playing out. (Every time a character or situation popped up that seemed like a writer’s invention, I’d do a bit of research and discover that it’s all based on fact.)

Despite his age, Franklin sets the French ladies aswooning…especially Madame Anne-Louise Brillon (Ludivine Sagnier), a composer who sees in Franklin the possibility of sexual equality. (The series is coy about whether Franklin had physical relations with these women, but controlling his active libido apparently was a lifelong struggle.) 

Meanwhile in a parallel story line, young Temple finds himself seduced by the many vices of upper-crust French society.  

The physical production is spectacular; much of the series appears to have been filmed in the actual historic settings.  The costuming (and the ladies’s wigs, oh, my!) are sumptuous.

All good.  

And then you have Douglas’ central performance.  I’m not sure exactly how I envisioned Franklin as a personality, but this wasn’t it.  Douglas’ Franklin in grumpy, dour and, frankly, not nearly charming enough.

But what really bugged me was his hairline.

Portraits of Franklin show him with long locks, but bald from his brows to the crown of his head. Douglas, though, has a hairline positioned several inches lower than that.  

Another thing: the real Franklin had a physique not unlike a potbellied stove.  But Douglas’ Franklin is notably trim.

The overall effect is less balding old man than aging rock star.  I came away with an impression of an actor more concerned with looking good than with nailing an historic truth.

Jeff Daniels

“A MAN IN FULL”(Netflix):  

Jeff Daniels is so adept at playing good guys (he was Atticus Finch on Broadway, for Chrissake) that when he shows a dark side (as in the Western “Godless”) it’s a shock.

In “A Man in Full” he portrays a fellow who in another show might be a villain. But because he’s played by Daniels we get a more nuanced approach.

Charlie Croker (Daniels) is an Atlanta real estate mogul who mixes good ol’ boy charm with a cutthroat business sense.  The plot of this David E. Kelley-scripted three-parter centers on Charlie’s efforts to avoid ruin…he’s a billion dollars in debt to a local bank that’s maneuvering to seize his assets.

Now Charlie probably deserves whatever comeuppance awaits him, but Daniels is so good we end up rooting for him to find a way out.  Also, the bank executive bearing down on him (the great Bill Camp) is such a nasty piece of work Charlie seems benign by comparison.

“A Man in Full” is less about finance, though, than about characters.

There is, for instance, Charlie’s current trophy wife (Sarah Jones)  who turns out to be a whole lot smarter and empathetic than one anticipates.

There’s  his ex Martha (Diane Lane) and their son (Evan Roe), who view the old mover and shaker with equal parts resignation, affection and wariness.

And especially there’s a bank underling (Tim Pelphrey), a sort of milquetoast everyman seeking to redress old hurts.  He ends up dating Lane’s character…but whether he’s bent on revenge or actual romance (this is Diane Lane we’re talking about) even he can’t decide.

As directed by Regina King and Thomas Schlamme, “A Man in Full” swoops in, throws some dramatic haymakers and sharply drawn performances, and concludes before wearing out its welcome.

“SECRETS OF THE OCTOPUS” (Disney +):

Octopi may be the coolest animals on Earth.

That’s the impression left by the three-part “Secrets of the Octopus,” a Paul Rudd-narrated nature documentary.

I mean, an octopus can change its color and skin texture to blend in with its surroundings.  We see one of these creatures using tools…a discarded shell becomes a shield to protect the octopus from predators.

Octopi appear to show other signs of intelligence, including a sense of curiosity about human visitors. And despite a reputation for being loners, some species live in colonies and one displays a relationship with a fish…the fish serves as a hunting dog, sniffing out and pointing to prey hidden in the coral and sand.

Think of this series as an expansion of the Oscar-winning “My Octopus Teacher.” 

It’s almost too much (the three hours feel a bit padded). But the underwater cinematography is so gorgeous — and the creatures themselves so weirdly compelling — that you can’t tear yourself away.

| Robert W. Butler

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