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Just a bit outside
Review: Off the Black
By Michael D Friedman
Reviews Editor & Online Producer
 | | Trevor Morgan and Nick Nolte play hardball. |
It would be easy write off Nick Nolte's performance in Sundance selection Off the Black as a parody of his public persona. After all, Nolte plays a man who's seemingly always on the verge of a drunkenness, and nobody who follows pop culture can forget that mugshot.
But Nolte's performance as a lonely youth-baseball umpire is particularly nuanced. There are subtleties in his role that are pitch perfect, and it's probably the best work he's done since Affliction.
Though shot in upstate New York, Off the Black was written and directed by Athens native (and former AFF Perfect Pitch winner) James Ponsoldt. It is a tragi-comic story of Ray, a lonely man trying to connect with somebody…anybody.
That anybody is high school pitcher Dave Tibbel (Trevor Morgan in a breakout performance), whom Ray catches toilet-papering his house. Dave and his teammates blame Ray for costing them their playoff game earlier in the day. When Dave's friends ditch him at the "old" man's house, Ray forces Dave to come back the next day to clean up the mess he made, or face the consequences with the police.
This begins an unlikely friendship, as Dave learns that Ray is not just a crazy old man who videotapes one-sided conversations and leaves post-it note reminders to himself all over the house. And when he agrees to "play" Ray's son at his high school reunion, he finds out that, yes, Ray was once cool, too.
When Off the Black works, it really works, mainly due to the chemistry between Nolte and Morgan. But when it fails, as when the pacing falls off, it seems to lumber along at a snail's pace.
Ponsoldt's script is charming, but also lacking in many ways. Characters pop in and out of Dave and Ray's lives with no explanation of who they are or what they really mean to the pair.
Timothy Hutton plays Dave's dad, and his performance is strong in its subtlety; but we really never learn why his character doesn't connect with his son. It's a major plot point, because Dave treats Ray like a father figure—the father that he currently doesn't have. But we don't know why.
Likewise, when Dave falls for an older woman (Rosemarie DeWitt), we soon learn that she is friends with Ray, a man who apparently had no friends at the beginning of the film. Or maybe she's related. Her character pops in and out with no seeming purpose, other than to give Dave something else to do and Ray someone else to relate to.
With some tighter editing, Off the Black easily could be a enjoyable film and a successful one. As it is now—to borrow a phrase from Bob Uecker—it's juuuust a bit outside.
Michael D Friedman is an Atlanta screenwriter and filmmaker. He is a founder and co-president of the Atlanta Screenwriters Group.
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(2½ out of 4)