The Comedian

[projekktor id=’26896′]

Directed by Taylor Hackford (Ray, The Devil’s Advocate), The Comedian stars Robert DeNiro as – you guessed it – a comedian, who is looking to change his image. The film premiered at the AFI Fest in November and co-stars Leslie Mann, Danny DeVito, Edie Falco, Veronica Ferres, Charles Grodin, Cloris Leachman, Patti LuPone, and Harvey Keitel.

An aging comic icon, JACKIE BURKE (De Niro) has seen better days. Despite his efforts to reinvent himself and his comic genius, the audience only wants to know him as the former television character he once played. Already a strain on his younger brother (DeVito) and his wife (LuPone), Jackie is forced to serve out a sentence doing community service for accosting an audience member. While there, he meets HARMONY (Mann), the daughter of a sleazy Florida real estate mogul (Keitel), and the two find inspiration in one another resulting in surprising consequences. Through the alchemy of their unlikely friendship, Harmony and Jackie overcome their own emotional damage and emerge as better people.

“The journey is what this film is about,” says Hackford. “I think of the film as a dark drama with comedy—somebody else may see a dark comedy with drama. There are jokes, but it’s really watching a man confront his reality at the latter part of his life, moving beyond being a failure in his own mind.”

The Comedian is rated 14A.