Review of Danny Collins

DANNY COLLINS (2015) ** AL PACINO, ANNETTE BENING, JENNIFER GARNER, BOBBY CANNAVALE, CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER, GISELLE EISENBERG. Pacino seems miscast as a long-in-the tooth rock star (think Rod Stewart by way of Neil Diamond) whose moment of clarity in attempting to right the oh-so-many-wrongs of his self-absorbed life as a star comes to fruition when his best friend and manager (Plummer, also miscast) gives him a birthday gift (the script by Dan Fogelman, making his directorial debut bases the storyline in a true-life moment of an unknown folk singer who was the unwitting subject of a mash note by John Lennon, whose songs are on prominent display here) which has him making amends with the son he never met (Cannavale) and his family (Garner as the expecting wife and Eisenberg as his energized granddaughter). The story is predictable and some of the dialogue is completely unoriginal and flat yet Pacino in low-key mode makes the most of the meal as does Bening as the manager of the New Jersey hotel he resides in during his stay.