what the film does
montgomery kessler (fraser) is a harvard senior whose computer crashes and destroys his thesis, except for the printed copy he accidentally drops into the basement of a campus building where simon wilder (pesci) lives. simon offers a deal: one page of the thesis for each favor monty does for him. the arrangement forces monty into a relationship with a man he would otherwise never meet, and the film follows the expected arc: initial hostility, grudging respect, mutual dependence, and the moment where the student realizes the teacher is the one who was supposed to learn.
the cast includes moira kelly, patrick dempsey, josh hamilton, and gore vidal as a harvard professor. the graduation sequence was filmed on the university of illinois quad because harvard would not allow filming on its campus.
why this one
two reasons. first, joe pesci. this is the only film where pesci plays a character who is entirely vulnerable: no gun, no mob, no comedy routine. simon wilder is a sick, aging man who has been living in a basement for years and knows it is killing him. pesci plays him without sentimentality and without the edge that defined his career. it is the performance that proved he could do anything.
second, sven nykvist. the man who shot persona, cries and whispers, and fanny and alexander shot this film at the end of his career. he was 64. the harvard campus, the winter light, the interior scenes in the basement: all of it carries the weight of a cinematographer who knew how to photograph loneliness. the film is worth watching for the way it looks alone.
the film was panned by critics (the new york times called it “a homeless zany” movie) and grossed $20 million. roger ebert was one of the few major critics who defended it, noting that the film “takes a serious look at being homeless” in a way most films of its era refused to.
what stays with me
the scene where simon recites the constitution from memory to a class, and the room goes quiet. pesci delivers it without grandstanding. the moment belongs to the character, not the actor, and that is what makes it land.
on hand
the dvd is the warner home video release in the canon.
image: tmdb backdrop; cross-checked against imdb stills. baked through scripts/bake_dark_photo.py at factor 0.45, 1200x675