The Entertainer is one of those films that goes a little too far in trying to show just how corrupt folks can become in show business. Ultimately the characters still need to take accountability for their own actions so I wouldn’t purely blame the job space. It’s definitely not a happy film by any means and after a while the constant sadness just overwhelms the rest of the movie. There isn’t a whole lot to enjoy here.
The film starts off by introducing us to Jean who has just had a big fight with her boyfriend. He doesn’t take her work seriously and is always taking shots at it. Now he has a big job opportunity which would force him to move far away. He wants her to come but Jean isn’t thrilled at the prospect. Instead she returns to her old home to visit her family but finds that they are not doing well at all. Her father Archie has really been bombing out at his latest comedy performances and the family is really poor right now. All they can count on is each other but is even that true?
The first problem with the film is that there are no good characters. The worst one right away is Archie for obvious reasons. The guy is cheating on his wife and makes bad decision after bad decision. He doubles down on basically everything with absolutely 0 remorse. You would think that with the stakes this high he would find some way to make ends meet but he does the opposite. Phoebe’s family is ready to offer him a job at any point but his pride forces him to refuse. Archie will live or die by his show business.
That may be a find attitude to have if you’re single but it is beyond selfish when you have a family that is depending on you. It’s not really a surprise that people wouldn’t enjoy his act because it seemed rather dreadful to me. There’s just nothing to it and you’ll be left shaking your head the whole time. Even the quick portions we see in the movie are more head scratching than anything else. Archie still makes promises that he can’t keep and loses even more money.
Usually you put a character in a tough bind so that the audience can feel sympathy for him but again, the guy’s a cheater. There is no sympathy to be had and if anything you’re rooting for his ruination. Then you have his son Frank who is essentially closing his eyes to the whole thing. He is content to just get drunk every day and support his parents. He doesn’t want to think about anything else and just stays out of the way so he is a classic case of being an enabler. When Jean tries to talk to Archie, Frank even runs interference.
Meanwhile Phoebe is another character who is essentially closing her eyes to what is happened. She puts up with a whole lot of grief from Archie who is constantly picking on her. Throw in the fact that she is really worried about her kid who is off in the war and it has not been a happy journey for her either. There are no real winners here. Now why doesn’t Jean rank so highly?
Well, she became complicit the moment that she found out Archie was cheating and didn’t say anything. Obviously it’s a hard topic to broach but she needed to come down hard on him or get out of there. Then when her boyfriend shows up, she basically tells him to leave because she needs to handle this on her own. With both of them always on different sides, I’m not sure how long their relationship is going to last. Jean got herself in the middle of a whole lot of family drama and that was definitely not a good thing. She needed to stay out or get in there and do something. Instead she’s just another passive observer.
The only one who really did something was Billy and the characters really get on his case for it. He’s archie’s father and finds out about the affair/false promises and decides to spill the beans. This causes a whole lot of drama and tough circumstances for Archie but that’s sort of the idea. Billy acts surprised at just how drastic it all gets but it shouldn’t have been a surprise. At the same time, he should have been happy about this because it really put a pin in that sub plot.
Things don’t go very well for him in the end. Billy tried his best but was just too old by this point. I understand that he wanted to help his son here but still should have let Archie dig himself out. It’s hard when you see a family member slipping to the dark side but if you try to help, the most likely outcome is that you’ll end up falling as well. That’s really the obvious ending to this kind of problem.
I dare say one improvement to the film would have been having Jean trying to fix things the whole time. Perhaps trying to redeem Archie, trying to get Phoebe to be more proactive, etc. Then as the film goes on she realizes that none of these attempts are working. So when her boyfriend shows up, Jean just leaves with him. That would have made for a more interesting plot and would have made her more likable as the lead. It’s really the best balance you could hope for. After all when the topics got serious here, the characters were quick to treat her coldly. Phoebe talking about how Jean isn’t her direct daughter, Archie just waving her off, etc. While we didn’t have much time for the boyfriend to reflect on his actions from the opening, we can assume that they are still okay. Jean’s side job will just be something that the two of them will continue to argue about probably even after they get married. It’s a bit of a red flag but could be worse.
Overall, I would say that this was just not a good film. It’s incredibly hard to make a good film with bad characters. I’m not saying that it is absolutely impossible but it is certainly difficult enough where I’m surprised whenever it works out. You’re just waiting for the cops to catch up and take this guy away. Archie shouldn’t have tried forcing his way through a business where he had lost the talent many years ago. Perhaps he could have trained himself into learning new skills and being a success again but then his ego was the other problem. Archie seemed to think that he was doing a fine job and so he didn’t need to learn any new tricks. Rookie mistake to be honest. The most tragic thing is that almost any of the other characters would have been more interesting as the lead.
Overall 3/10
