“You’re a man among men” – Toby Roebuck (Melanie Griffith in Nobody’s Fool)
People don’t really talk about great Thanksgiving Day movies. There’s so much fuss over Halloween, and Christmas movies are their own weird sub-genre, but Thanksgiving doesn’t merit the same cinephillic enthusiasm I suppose. You have Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987), Home For The Holidays (1995), The Ice Storm (1997), Daytrippers (1997) and Nobody’s Fool (1994). In my family we usually go the route of John Hughes. But my late father’s preference, even when it wasn’t November, was always for Nobody’s Fool.
I think what appealed to my father about Robert Benton’s film (and by extension Richard Russo’s novel) was the notion that a man can “make” a family of his own from friends, relatives, etc. There is something very Capra-esque about Nobody’s Fool in how it ties masculinity to family and identity to community. Yet, Nobody’s Fool isn’t awash in tearjerking sentimentality; it’s a film that charms.
A lot of this “charm” emanates from Paul Newman (giving a career best performance as Sully) and all of the weight behind his celebrity persona. Backing up Newman is a cast of “who’s who” that really makes for a dynamite ensemble that even Robert Altman would have envied; including Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, Jessica Tandy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Margo Martindale.
But all these fine actors, with all of their natural charisma and chemistry, would be wasted if not for Benton’s screenplay. Screenwriting was always Benton’s strength, first and foremost. Though as a director his visuals are competent, not exciting. Benton’s strength is working with actors in such a way as to realize the subtleties that are almost indecipherable in all good screenplays. Benton’s films are only as good as the script and the cast; in Nobody’s Fool he has both.
