Levinson’s treatment of the sex is restrained on screen; no nudity and there is only the shadowy allusion of sex. Given the novel, this was obviously a conscious choice by the filmmakers — in this way the focus is sharpened on Axler’s pyscho-emotional state: and the audience is better for it. Never distracted from his predicament, we laugh with Axler, we root for him to get well and we want him to ‘beep’ the lesbian out of Pageen in an honest reaction to our hope that he will now succeed in a mostly failed life, and not because of a prejudice driven by any sexual politics.

The novel as is widely known was received with very mixed reaction and panned by many, but in Levinson and Pacino’s hands, this arrestingly strange story comes to life. Like the novel, the film moves in and out of cliché, testing them, rendering them very human and infused with understanding and genuine sympathy. Films with strong character at their core are rare these days and Pacino’s Axler is a welcomed exception; Axler struggles to distinguish what is real and clearly we see Pacino’s contribution in his own fascination with Shakespeare’s premise that all the world is a stage. Axler, despite every effort to find something of reality in his fading life, eventually succumbs to and embraces the Shakespearean premise.

Pacino’s performance in ‘The Humbling’ defies in many ways the character he is playing and is perhaps one of his most subtle yet strongest performances on screen. Deserving of an Oscar nomination at the very least, this actor has clearly not lost the magic of his craft and continues to astonish.

Alfredo Romano