tieman64 This is a brief review of "Nobody's Fool" (1994) and "Twilight" (1998), two films by director Robert Benton, both starring Paul Newman.The better of both films, "Nobody's Fool" stars Newman as Donald Sullivan, an elderly man who lives in small-town America. Perpetually down on his luck, "Fool's" first act watches as Sullivan struggles to claim unpaid wages. For the next hour, things only get worse for Sully: he loses bets, loses money, almost loses his leg, is revealed to be estranged from his family and gets thrown into jail.The film's great joke, though, is that Sully is never sullen. Always giving as good as he gets, Sully repeatedly steals machinery from his boss, and flirts with his bosses wife (Melanie Griffith). As the film progresses, we the audience also begin to appreciate just how many people rely upon the "unlucky" Sully, how lucky they are to have him in their lives, and how upstanding a guy he is when compared to many others in his community.Which is not to say Sully is without flaws. Indeed, "Nobody's Fool's" climax features the usual "improvements" and "reconcilliations" typical of the genre. Sully learns to be a better man, a better father, and attempts to correct mistakes in others he once committed himself. This is all painfully routine. Where the film shines is in Newman's lovable performance, Benton's ceaselessly witty dialogue, and his willingness to sympathise with major and minor characters which lesser films typically villainize.Released four years later, "Twilight" again stars Newman. This time he plays Harry Ross, an ex-cop and one-time private detective. Like "Nobody's Fool", the film's first act watches as Newman damages his leg. Again like "Nobody's Fool", the film then begins to question the impotency and disloyalty of its lead character.Throughout "Twilight", Newman plays a now familiar archetype: the ageing private detective. He's an old timer, washed up, and mocked by all. To make matters worse, everyone believes that Ross lost his penis in a gunfight. Ross' presumed impotency is mirrored to the film's other ageing characters: a washed up actress (Susan Sarandon) in her twilight years, and a dying actor (Gene Hackman), both of whom are friends with Ross. The film's moral dilemma hinges around all three characters. Did Hackman and Sarandon collude to kill a man, is Ross helping them, and more importantly, will he cover-up a murder to protect a friend? To say anymore would be to spoil the fun."Twilight" is set in California, home of many great sun-bleached noirs. It's also home to Benton's earliest noir, "The Late Show", a 1977 feature which starred Art Carny as Ira Wells, an ageing private detective who, like Harry Ross, is accused of being long past his sell-by date. Both films allow their ageing heroes one final blaze of glory. Both films are also unable to transcend the conventions of their genre. "Twilight's" climax in particular is rife with clichés.7.5/10 - See "Cutter's Way" and "Flesh and Bone" (1993).

Rodrigo Amaro Heavyweight stars working on a weightless plot yet doing some good for us and themselves. That can be said of many movies and also about "Twilight". No, this isn't Team Edward or Team Jacob, it's a film noir about wrapped in secrets, ghosts from the past and some skeletons in the closet (more like on a swimming pool!). On the front seat of this we have the team Paul Newman and director Robert Benton, re-teaming after the successful "Nobody's Fool"; and the amazing passengers of this are Susan Sarandon, Gene Hackman, James Garner, Stockard Channing, Giancarlo Esposito, Reese Witherspoon, Liev Schreiber, John Spencer, Margo Martindale and M. Emmet Walsh (horribly reduced to a pivotal role but with no speaking lines). Newman plays Harry, a veteran private detective in the twilight of his career and years, decadent and living of favors in the house of Jack Ames, a dying veteran actor (Hackman) and his wife (Sarandon), also an actress, doing some jobs here and there for them, covering up their dirt. Then, during one of those "jobs", after almost getting killed by another detective, he decides to check out what's behind the many out-coming mysteries which are appearing on his way, things that might have to do with his past and also things from the past of his bosses/friends. Favorable point for him: the unusual help of a sidekick (Esposito) - in terms of script kind of strange but it works well. Low point for him: flames getting higher between him and Ames wife; her brat daughter (Witherspoon) whose purpose is to put the man down just because she doesn't like him, due to an incident involving her boyfriend (Schreiber). Fine movie but quite cheap if you think about all the elements involved. Quite simplified as noir don't tend to be, convoluted in so many dialogs and never all that interesting or clever, "Twilight" begs for our attention but doesn't give much in return. When you see the mystery close of getting solved, already figuring out who's the bad guy, you end up asking yourself "Why should I care about this story?". Well, you should care but the movie doesn't impels you in such direction. You're there for the actors and that sometimes works replacing the excitement, the thrills, the action, everything that is missing here. While it feeds us with Newman giving an outstanding performance, it doesn't offer much when it comes to show the other actors, most of them reduced to a few scenes (Garner stands out with perfection though). Once again we see Newman's character trying to show he can hit the top of his craft even though he's not fast and younger as before, realizing that things have changed but he still can find a way to do something. But he played this several times before and in better projects ("The Verdict", "Nobody's Fool" and his Oscar winning Eddie Felson in "The Color of Money"). Sarandon brings lots of sensuality in her role but at times it seems director Benton and his writing partner Richard Russo are forcing things far too much when it comes to presenting those sexy moments. Hackman was a little underused in this, but presents some class act during his first scenes. Conclusion: it's not fun as it could and should be but it's watchable. Rare times a good team like this were gathered and could make something decent out of a movie. 7/10

mojo7777 I like noir films in general but the pacing of certain scenes tends to be very slow and contrivances such as Sarandon's cigarette dialogue/fumbling exaggerates and amplifies the slowness; I suppose this pacing is intended to impart to the audience a feeling of importance/seriousness to the scene but it does just the opposite.I was surprised to read the budget for this film was $37 million because the production values don't seem to be that high --- apparently lots of money going to actors' salaries.Plot hole observation: Newman shoots and kills Garner in Garner's home; Newman apparently explains it away to the police as self defense because he was about to expose Garner as a murderer; the now dead Garner has no way to defend himself, and irregardless of this fact, the police swallow whole Newman's suspicious story (which, oops, happens to be the main premise of the screenplay) and let him go free. I know if I shot and killed someone in their house without clear motive I wouldn't be walking free anytime soon.

MBunge Reese Whitherspoon is topless in this movie and it is thoroughly gratuitous. Unlike most young actresses, however, at least Whitherspoon can look back and know she was exploited in a quality film while she was working with some of the best performers of a generation and one of the biggest movie stars of all time.Harry Ross (Paul Newman) used to be a cop and, after that, used to be a private investigator. But after a job down in Mexico bringing back the rebellious daughter of an aging movie star named Jack Ames (Gene Hackman), Harry gets shot. Ames takes Harry into his home while he recovers, then keeps him around as a handyman and family friend. Two years after the Mexico mess, the cancer-stricken Ames asks Harry to deliver an envelope for him. When he takes it to the instructed address, Harry nearly gets shot by a guy who was himself shot in the gut sometime before Harry arrived. Harry manages to just barely avoid getting killed until the guy dies, after which he discovers the man was named Lester Ivar (M. Emmet Walsh). I var was another former cop turned private eye and Harry learns that Ivar was continuing to investigate the disappearance of a actor 20 years ago. That actor was the then-husband of Jack Ames' current wife Catherine (Susan Sarandon). It seems the actor disappeared just in time to clear the way for Catherine to leave him for Jack. And if you think you know where the story is going based on that little plot twist, you're right. That is where the story goes. Harry's investigation into who killed Ivar, who's blackmailing Jack Ames and what happened to Catherine's first husband brings him into contact with another old private eye buddy (James Garner) and an old flame on the police force (Stockard Channing) before culminating in the sort of darkly hopeful ending that the best film noir always aspires to pull off.This is a very good movie. As I mentioned earlier, it's not much of a mystery. You might not be able to guess every single detail of the story before it unfolds, but you figure out early on how it's going to play out and even how it will likely end up. There's very little "whodunit" going on here, but that's not a problem. This isn't a movie about how a mystery gets solved. It's about the people caught up in it.The actors in Twilight are every bit as good as you could expect or want with performers of this caliber. Whitherspoon gives the weakest performance of the lot, but what young woman could measure up to the veteran talent in this cast? Newman, Sarandon, Hackman, Garner and Channing all do superb work as those rarest of all Hollywood movie characters – grown ups. These aren't old people tagging along in a young person's world and they aren't characters who behave a decade or two younger and stupider than they actually are. These are people with histories that define then and histories they sometimes struggle to overcome. Newman and Hackman are especially marvelous to watch as two men who both know the thread of their life is running thin and are readying themselves for that end. Even though you know where the story is going, it's a great pleasure to watch these characters get there.Twilight is quite a nice film with lots of real human emotion, humor and drama. It takes a very down-to-Earth approach to desperate acts and how they can shape people's lives, in contrast to many films where it seems like every aspect of existence is heightened and exaggerated to ridiculous levels. Newman made a handful of enjoyable and classy movies like Twilight at the end of his career and they serve as a worthy capstone to his remarkable achievements.