I watched a DVD of the movie Duane Hopwood last week. I’m very pleased I did – I thought it was excellent. It starred David Schwimmer from Friends. I didn’t expect him to be great in a dramatic role, but he proved me wrong (unlike fellow Friend Courtney Cox who I recently saw in November, which I simply couldn’t sit through).
Schwimmer plays a divorced alcoholic father of two young girls. He loses visitation rights after being caught driving drunk with one of his daughters in the car. The movie is really about (imo) the sadness of people making bad choices in their lives – sad because he seems like a nice guy, who you really wish had a better life. Arguably the movie is a little misguided in portraying him this way – but that’s a theological quibble. He really does a nice job, as does co-star Janeanne Garofalo as his ex-wife. It’s not what I would call an “entertaining” movie, but worth seeing nonetheless.