''Duane Hopwood'' is a 2005 American
comedy-drama film
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
written and directed by
Matt Mulhern
Matt Mulhern (born July 21, 1960) is an American actor and historian who has starred in such films as '' One Crazy Summer'' and '' Biloxi Blues'', and such television series such as '' Major Dad'', '' JAG'', and '' Rescue Me'' (playing Lt. John ...
, and starring
David Schwimmer
David Lawrence Schwimmer (born November 2, 1966) is an American actor, director and producer. He gained worldwide recognition for portraying Ross Geller in the sitcom ''Friends'', for which he received a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Primeti ...
,
Janeane Garofalo
Janeane Marie Garofalo ( ; born September 28, 1964) is an American comedian, actress, and former co-host on the now-defunct Air America Radio's ''The Majority Report''.
Garofalo began her career as a stand-up comedian and became a cast member on ...
,
Judah Friedlander
Judah Friedlander (born March 16, 1969) is an American actor and comedian, known for playing the role of writer Frank Rossitano on the NBC sitcom ''30 Rock''. Friedlander is also known for his role as Toby Radloff in the film '' American Splendo ...
,
John Krasinski and
Steve Schirripa
Steven Ralph Schirripa ( ; born September 3, 1957) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Bobby Baccalieri on ''The Sopranos'', Leo Boykewich on ''The Secret Life of the American Teenager'', and Detective Anthony Abetemarco on ' ...
. After being featured in the
Sundance Film Festival in January 2005, it later had a limited theatrical release in November 2005. The film's plot centers on the title character (Schwimmer), an alcoholic whose life is spiraling downward rapidly after his divorce from Linda (Garofalo).
Plot
Duane Hopwood is a floor manager at
Caesars Palace casino in
Atlantic City, New Jersey. His slip into alcoholism has resulted in his divorce from his wife Linda, who holds custody over their two daughters, Mary and Katie, while Duane holds only visitation rights. One night, a drunken Duane is pulled over after swerving across the road, and it is discovered that Katie is in the backseat. Duane is banned from driving and is forced to borrow a bicycle from Linda as his main means of travel.
At the casino, Duane has to deal with a difficult customer, Mr. Alonso, whom he illegally gives a few quarters to play a few more slots, resulting in Alonso winning the jackpot prize. Duane later meets Linda and she tells him that Mary would like to talk to him and also informs him that her lawyer has suggested she revoke his visitation rights because of his drunk driving incident, but also expresses her own desire for Duane to refrain from drinking around their children. When Duane returns to the casino, he is taken into his boss Carl's office to explain his part in a disagreement between Alonso and an old lady, Mrs. Fillipi, who claims that she was initially using Alonso's machine and that she saw Duane give Alonso the quarters to use it. Duane falsely claims that it was Alonso's own money which was used to win the jackpot; Mrs. Fillipi loses the dispute.
Duane visits Mary, who tells him she wants to live with him due to Katie calling her fat and Linda's new boyfriend, Bob, encouraging her to go running and lose weight. Duane asks Linda if she will call off her lawyer if he stops drinking altogether. He later confronts her and Bob about the latter's role in Mary's unhappiness; the confrontation escalates and Duane picks up a baseball bat and moves towards Bob, but backs off and leaves after realising the children are watching. That night, Duane later goes to a bar and gets drunk, where he meets Gina, a bartender. She gives him a ride home, but rejects his drunken advances. However, her car fails to start, so she remains at his house overnight, and although Duane refrains from hitting on her any further, a mutual attraction grows. The next day, Carl shows Duane a tape of him giving the quarters to Alonso. Carl, under pressure from his own boss, is forced to fire Duane. Duane spends the rest of his day getting drunk, before going home and having sex with Gina. However, he admits to her that he still loves Linda, causing Gina to leave.
Duane attends a support group for his alcoholism, but becomes too emotional to stay for long. When he later attends the court hearing on his visitation rights, he explains to the judge that he needs to be able to see his daughters because they are the only thing he has left to live for. However, Linda's lawyer produces the bat that Duane had threatened Bob with. Shortly after the hearing, Duane's lawyer, Steve, grimly shows up on Duane's doorstep, saying simply "Let's talk." Fearing the worst, Duane drives to Linda's house but finds it empty. He later gets drunk, goes to his friend and housemate Anthony's stand-up gig at the casino and proceeds to ruin it, before being restrained and made to leave.
The next morning, Duane apologizes to Anthony for sabotaging his show. Linda turns up and explains that she, Bob and the two girls are moving to
South Carolina
)'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
, where Bob has a job co-running a gym. Duane accepts responsibility for the breakup of the family, and Linda asks him to come and say goodbye before the move, promising to arrange for him to visit the girls in South Carolina once they have settled. The next day, Linda, Bob and the two girls wait at the house for a while, but Duane does not show, so they drive off, only for Duane to cycle up next to the car, wearing a turkey costume that Anthony had used for one of his stand-up acts. After giving them all a proper goodbye, Duane contently watches them leave. Having moved on from Linda, Duane reunites with Gina, with whom he and Anthony attend a thanksgiving meal. The film ends with a scene of a toast, with everyone then drinking wine, except Duane, who drinks water.
Cast
*
David Schwimmer
David Lawrence Schwimmer (born November 2, 1966) is an American actor, director and producer. He gained worldwide recognition for portraying Ross Geller in the sitcom ''Friends'', for which he received a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Primeti ...
as Duane Hopwood
*
Janeane Garofalo
Janeane Marie Garofalo ( ; born September 28, 1964) is an American comedian, actress, and former co-host on the now-defunct Air America Radio's ''The Majority Report''.
Garofalo began her career as a stand-up comedian and became a cast member on ...
as Linda
*
Judah Friedlander
Judah Friedlander (born March 16, 1969) is an American actor and comedian, known for playing the role of writer Frank Rossitano on the NBC sitcom ''30 Rock''. Friedlander is also known for his role as Toby Radloff in the film '' American Splendo ...
as Anthony
*
John Krasinski as Bob Flynn
* Ramya Pratt as Mary Hopwood
*
Rachel Covey as Katie Hopwood
* Jerry Grayson as Carl
*
Steve Schirripa
Steven Ralph Schirripa ( ; born September 3, 1957) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Bobby Baccalieri on ''The Sopranos'', Leo Boykewich on ''The Secret Life of the American Teenager'', and Detective Anthony Abetemarco on ' ...
as Steve
*
Susan Lynch
Susan Lynch (born 5 June 1971) is a Northern Irish actress. three-times an IFTA Award winner, she also won the British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 2003 film ''16 Years of Alcohol''. Her other film appearances in ...
as Gina
*
Dick Cavett as Fred
* Bill Buell as Wally
*
Brian Tarantina
Brian Tarantina (March 27, 1959 – November 2, 2019) was an American stage, screen, and television character actor born in New York City. He was known for his roles on such shows as '' One Life to Live'', ''The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel'', and ''G ...
as Mr Alonso
*
Irma St. Paule
Irma St. Paule (March 23, 1926 – January 9, 2007) was a Ukrainian-born American character actress who appeared on stage, screen and television from 1985 to 2007. Often portraying elderly characters, she appeared in productions on Broadway thea ...
as Mrs Fillipi
Production
The movie was shot over 21 days in
Atlantic City,
Longport,
Margate
Margate is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay and Westbrook.
The town has been a significan ...
,
Ocean City, and
Ventnor
Ventnor () is a seaside resort and civil parish established in the Victorian era on the southeast coast of the Isle of Wight, England, from Newport. It is situated south of St Boniface Down, and built on steep slopes leading down to the sea. ...
,
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
.
Duane Hopwood was a character featured in director Mulhern's previous film, ''
Walking to the Waterline
''Walking to the Waterline'' is a 1998 American drama film written and directed by Matt Mulhern and starring Matt Mulhern, Alan Ruck, Matthew Broderick, and Hallie Foote. The film premiered at the Florida Film Festival on June 13, 1998. The fil ...
'', then played by
Alan Ruck
Alan Douglas Ruck (born July 1, 1956) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Cameron Frye, Ferris Bueller's best friend, in John Hughes's film ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' (1986); Stuart Bondek, a lecherous, power-hungry member of ...
.
Release
The film was featured in the
Sundance Film Festival on 20 January 2005. It later received a limited theatrical release on 11 November of that year. IFC did not release the film in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
or
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, focusing instead on
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
,
Tucson
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
and
Kansas City.
According to
Box Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo is an American website that tracks box-office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. The site was founded in 1998 by Brandon Gray, and was bought in 2008 by IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is ...
, the film grossed $13,510 domestically.
Home media
HBO released the DVD in April 2006.
Reception
The film holds a 55% on review aggregator site
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10, but with no consensus. On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the film holds a score of 53 out of 100, based on seven reviews from mainstream critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Peter Sobczynski gave the film a highly negative review, regarding the character of Duane as unlikable and the ending as being too upbeat. Sobczynski described the film as "a crock from beginning to end" and rated it one star of out five. J.R. Jones of ''
The Chicago Reader
The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. It was founded by a ...
'' commended the cast but criticized the comedic aspects. Scott Tobias of ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' called the film "middling" and unfavorably compared it to ''
The Good Girl
''The Good Girl'' is a 2002 American comedy-drama film directed by Miguel Arteta from a script by Mike White. The film stars Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gyllenhaal and John C. Reilly.
''The Good Girl'' premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, ...
'', featuring Schwimmer's ''
Friends'' co-star,
Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Joanna Aniston (born February 11, 1969) is an American actress and film producer. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Since her career ...
.
Robert Koehler of ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' also compared the film to ''The Good Girl'', albeit it in a much more positive light. Koehler praised the performances of the cast and the realistic characterization.
Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars out of four and named it as one of the best movies of 2005. Ebert praised the film's portrayal of alcoholism and stated that Schwimmer gave "one of those performances that transform the way we think about an actor."
References
External links
*
*
*
* {{Metacritic film
2005 films
American independent films
American comedy-drama films
2005 comedy-drama films
2005 independent films
Films about alcoholism
Films set in New Jersey
Films shot in New Jersey
Films shot in Atlantic City, New Jersey
Big Beach (company) films
2000s English-language films
2000s American films
Films set in Atlantic City, New Jersey