BOULEVARD (2014) finally opens Friday

What is ending up being one of the last pieces of work we’ll see of Robin Williams, BOULEVARD hits theaters Friday. It’s a fantastic piece of work by Williams and shows just how good a dramatic actor he was.

The plot of the film has Williams playing a married man who finally comes to terms with the fact that he is gay when he has an encounter with a street hustler. The initial meeting is not sexual but it sparks something in Williams to reevaluate his life.

When I saw the film at Tribeca last year I wandered out about half way into the film knowing that I needed to see the film away from the wave of 80 films of the festival. I knew instantly that what Williams was doing was amazing, but I also knew that while he was going to get noticed for the role I suspected it was going to because a straight actor played it gay. Sadly I was wrong and the notice is because it’s the last thing that we’re going to see from Williams. Do I think Williams’ performance is deserving of an Oscar? Probably not. But it’s one of those performances like DEAD AGAIN, NIGHT LISTENER, JAKOB THE LIAR, HAMLET or SEIZE THE DAY where he went outside the box to show us how good he could be.

I’m not going to lie, while this is a good film, it’s far from a great one. It’s a little too formulaic. Even seeing the film a second time did not allow me to find some hidden greatness in the film as a whole. It’s a solidly good little film that deserves to be seen. It’s a film that I’ve been quietly championing since I first saw it. The fact that it was largely homeless until recently made it a film that Unseen was set up to highlight- good- not necessarily great- little films that people need to know about. You need to know this exists.

The film its theaters Friday and if you can give the film a shot, if not to see a great performance from Robin Williams then to say farewell to great actor.