From con males to actual property closers, David Mamet has made a profession out of writing characters who know how you can spot a sucker. And with “Henry Johnson,” his first movie in 10 years, he invitations his devotees to look beneath the hood and look at the psyche of one of many weak, simply manipulated people that his most memorable characters spend their lives exploiting.
Tailored from his play of the identical identify, which premiered in Los Angeles in 2023 earlier than mounting a Chicago manufacturing this spring, “Henry Johnson” unfolds over the course of 4 two-handed scenes. Like several Mamet endeavor, the actual star is the language. Main plot occasions occur nearly totally offscreen, with its ensemble of characters utilizing them as leaping off factors to soliloquize about all the pieces from the worth of remedy to Snow White’s vagina. Everybody has preconceived opinions about his writing model, however Mamet places it to make use of, with extra substance than current misfires just like the limitless telephone dialog in “China Doll” or the critically panned Harvey Weinstein play “Bitter Wheat.” The Pulitzer winner has one thing to say, however whether or not anybody nonetheless needs to listen to it’s one other query totally.
From the second Henry Johnson (Evan Jonigkeit) seems on display screen, he’s working in service of extra highly effective males. He timidly approaches Mr. Barnes (Chris Bauer), his boss at an unspecified job, with a request to rent a pal of his who’s eligible for parole. Mr. Barnes — who emasculates Henry along with his physique language and assured presence earlier than he ever opens his mouth — doesn’t perceive why he ought to assist somebody who pleaded responsible to manslaughter and proceeds to grill his worker about his affection for this imprisoned man.
Whereas Henry initially tries to spin his conduct as a benevolent act of kindness, Barnes successfully makes the case that Henry was merely manipulated by an enthralling sociopath. Moreover, he reveals that he is aware of Henry embezzled $300,000 from the corporate to assist pay the person’s protection attorneys, and Barnes has each intention to press fees.
The remainder of the movie takes place in a jail, the place Henry’s gruff however philosophical cellmate, Gene (Shia LaBeouf), tries to show him the methods of the world. Henry nonetheless views the embezzlement as a noble deed, however Gene is definite that solely a chump would exit on a limb for another person with out getting one thing in return. He encourages Henry to be extra aggressive in life, regardless of the fee. Henry ultimately complies within the type of actions that must stay unmentioned, because it’s fairly straightforward to spoil a movie with solely 4 scenes.
For a personality whose actions set so many penalties in movement, Henry is remarkably passive. The type of empty go well with who, as Shiv Roy so memorably put it, will at all times suck the largest dick within the room, his solely operate in life is to make himself helpful to 1 strongman earlier than leaping ship to a different when he’s inevitably forged apart. Each Mr. Barnes and Gene topic him to scoldings about how he wants to face up for himself when different folks manipulate him, however he’s by no means intelligent sufficient to see that they’re merely diverting consideration from their very own schemes to deploy him for his or her private advantages.
A outstanding Trump supporter whose outspoken opinions have overshadowed his work for the previous decade, Mamet presents a reasonably damning indictment of weak point in our society that has a large berth of interpretations relying on the place your individual views fall. In a single sense, Henry is the type of ineffective man who creates arduous instances along with his personal passivity. Practically all of the movie’s tragedy might be averted if he might simply develop a spine for 5 consecutive seconds and stand as much as a bully. I’m certain there’s somebody who’d make the case {that a} childhood spent changing seed oils with beef tallow and saying slurs in class might have fastened all of it, however Mamet mercifully by no means goes there. If something, the egocentric voices in Henry’s ears are nearer to the MAGA grifters promoting male vitality dietary supplements on essentially the most vile podcasts you’ve ever heard. His personal lack of a way of self creates a vacuum that’s instantly crammed by nefarious actors who’re desirous to promote him an phantasm of masculinity that hides the actual fact he’s fully beneath their thumbs.
Many critics have hailed “Henry Johnson” as Mamet’s finest play in years. And whereas I’ve not taken in a stage manufacturing, I see no motive to disagree with that reward (nonetheless faint). However theater and movie are wildly totally different media, and Mamet’s film doesn’t try and adapt his work for a brand new visible language. The movie was unsurprisingly shot in beneath every week, and the one phrases added to the taking pictures script might have been “Fade In” and “Fade Out.”
Mamet’s loquacious characters have at all times been most at residence on stage as a result of there’s no motive to count on them to do something apart from discuss. Even essentially the most practical kitchen sink dramas ever staged aren’t true “realism,” as a result of there’s at all times the inherent absurdity of watching reside actors whose whole world is confined to a small stage. Mamet by no means takes benefit of movie’s capability to supply a extra naturalistic portrayal of human life, and watching two males chew surroundings for 20 uninterrupted minutes in an workplace appears significantly goofier when it’s shot in excessive definition. There’s additionally no motive for a lot of the motion to happen offscreen. The method labored for Sophocles (and possibly for the stage productions of “Henry Johnson” as nicely), however what comes throughout as intelligent in a single format merely appears lazy in one other.
“Henry Johnson” provides Mamet followers motive to consider that the playwright nonetheless has extra to supply us than starry “Glengarry Glenn Ross” revivals and Fox Information screeds, and the small ensemble forged all make convincing work of the fabric. However as a movie, Mamet’s adaptation ought to depart you with little greater than a want to see the play.
Grade: C+
“Henry Johnson” opens on the Aero Theatre in Los Angeles and turns into obtainable on VOD on Friday, Could 9, with extra theatrical markets added all through Could.
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