Lord Olivier's failed attempt at leading a fantasy life within a real world (3.5 stars)

"The Entertainer" is a Tony Richardson film about a Vaudeville performer named Archie Rice (Sir Lawrence Olivier) who tries desperately to keep his despaired life simple and happy. In fact, his signature song-and-dance routine is entitled "Why Should I Care," and he spends most of the movie attempting to realize the failed lessons of this tune. Archie's career has gone downhill, his son is a prisoner of war, he cheats on his wife with a young model, and a money-scandal is closing in on him fast. It becomes painfully obvious that Archie knows the answer to his song's question, "why should I care, why should I let it come over me?"

There appears to be three types of scenes within "The Entertainer." The first is Archie's onstage performances, usually happy little Vaudeville sketches and songs and the scrambling that goes on behind the curtain - Archie's fantasy world, if you will. The second scene type always revolves around the family. They're all pessimistic about how life is shaping up, but Olivier's character remains focused on simplicity and always tries to reassure others that everything is under control. The third type of scene usually occurs when Archie is away from the home and stage. Within these scenes, the Vaudevillian's hidden distress comes out and we can see that it's only a matter of time before his blocking wall of passive happiness comes crumbling down. These three distinct scenes help us see how Archie blocks out reality, only to have it come back to haunt him when he stops performing for his audience and family.

The flavor of "The Entertainer" tastes like theater: storytelling through mostly dialog and nonexistent camera-authorship. Maybe the stage-play feel works in a literal way (after all, the name IS "The Entertainer"), but I demand more from a story of this potential. I should note here that this IS based on a stage-play, but i'll also note that I've seen MUCH better theater-to-cinema adaptions from other Kitchen Sink-era UK films. This movie rides on the story and Olivier's name alone bringing a rather mainstream look to a not-so-mainstream theme, keeping the audience's eyes on Lord Larry and their minds on his troubled life.

There are positive elements to "The Entertainer" that make this film worth checking out. The theme and general plot of the story is very tragic and fairly interesting to watch unfold. Of course, this picture is a product of the post-WWII film movement in Britain where the stories attempted to emulate dreary "real-life" (this UK movement is sometimes called "young angry men" or "kitchen sink"). Another positive is the great ending and the last few lines of Archie (I won't comment any more on that for the sake of not spoiling it). Finally, I really enjoyed the "essence" of the protagonist and how the audience is meant to view him. Archie is a man who's goal is to live a fantasy life within a cruel world - escape dread through passive happiness. What I love about Archie is that you are not necessarily meant to like him, but you are meant to pity the man.

The Entertainer's negative elements came very close to ruining the experience for me. The first bad thing about this film that comes to mind is the over-the-top theatrics from Olivier and fellow cast members. With many of them (most notably Olivier himself) being stage actors at some point in their career, I almost excused the inadequacy... almost. To give you an idea of just how theatrical the acting was, the awful sobbing of Archie's wife was so terribly over-the-top that I couldn't stop laughing (and this was at a film festival, surrounded by Olivier die hards who promptly gave me disapproving looks). The second shortcoming of "The Entertainer" is that the mood shifts so artificially fast that it's hard to keep your thoughts on par with what is occurring onscreen. This could be good or bad considering that life itself is a confusing rollercoaster ride of emotions (sorry for the cliche), but the thing is that it's "noticeably" awkward and confusing. My final beef with "The Entertainer" is that the tragic happenings seem unrealistically timed to have maximum "ouch" impact on Archie and his family. Again, this wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so forced and evident. All of the films negatives seem to sprout out of trying too hard, whether it be by the actors, director, or screenwriter - too theatrical for cinema.

If you enjoyed "Topsy-Turvy" but can do without the interesting costumes and spunky humor, chances are that you'll like "The Entertainer." These two films share more than a passing resemblance, in fact, many of Turvy's scenes and themes can be traced directly to scenes and themes within Richardson's film. While Turvy is biographical, it's appallingly obvious that some of Michael Leigh's ideas based in assumption came from "The Entertainer;" credit should be given to where credit is due.

I recommend "The Entertainer" to people who can get by on a good story, Richardson fans, and/or Lord Larry die hards. A tad theatrical for my tastes and I never truly liked Tony Richardson, but that "look at these eyes" speech by Olivier made it worth my time. Not as realistic as the "Kitchen Sink" fans would like, but there's bound to be a stinker or two in every movement.