Looking like it was a script plucked straight out of the 1970s, maybe even the ’50s, the richly entertaining midrange drama Easy’s Waltz goes down easy. It’s an engrossing character study of the kind of Vegas lounge singer that ought to be in that museum on the Strip that is full of salvaged signs of the Las Vegas that has been torn down and replaced by much glitzier new-age models. That probably is an apt description of Easy (Vince Vaughn) himself, a guy just trying to make ends meet by running a restaurant on the outskirts and performing nightly. He’s a Vic Damone-ish singer, really talented with the phrasing of a lyric and dedicated to delivering for the few faithfuls who actually come to see him perform.
It is his night job, as he also has to look out for the staff and make sure ends meet. Into his life comes mover and shaker Mickey Albano (Al Pacino), who sees something in Easy that he can exploit and convinces him that he belongs at the Wynn Hotel on the Strip instead and he can make it happen. He becomes a mentor, and soon Easy is getting the bigger break he never thought would happen. Easy is the kind of Vegas fixture who could see the big time happening just “over there” in the glitzy distance of the world’s most famous gambling town. But the Sinatra era is dead; this now is a place where stars do “residencies.” There are still lounges, though, and Easy fits right in.
The complication for him is devotion to his troubled younger brother Sam (Simon Rex), who acts as his “manager” but is generally a screw-up. It doesn’t change, and Sam’s stupid moves affect his relationship with Mickey, landing him in increasing trouble. Mickey is an old-style smooth operator — but don’t cross him, or he will show up with his goon squad for some beating-up time. Easy also has to deal with his mother (Mary Steenburgen), a tough cookie he is paying to keep above water. His visit to her is the kind of single scene where an Oscar winner like Steenburgen knocks it out of the park. We instantly know this woman, and it isn’t pretty.
That title — Easy’s Waltz — is one that instantly suggests this is going to be the kind of character-based movie Hollywood studios used to thrive on but now barely touch. This indie film ,which had its world premiere Thursday as a Special Presentation at the Toronto Film Festival, marks the feature writing-directing debut of Nic Pizzolatto, who proved in the first season of HBO’s True Detective he has the chops for this sort of thing. He proves it again here with a richly entertaining Vegas-y movie that feels decades older that the era of The Hangover and Leaving Las Vegas.
It is an actor’s dream. Vaughn has one of his best roles here, a guy who can interpret everything from “The Little Drummer Boy” to rock classics like “Edge of Seventeen” to Darin and Anka in their prime and get to their essence. But for is own good, perhaps he shouldn’t drift from his longtime comfort zone by playing a game he doesn’t know so well. And it is nice to see Pacino get a decent part here; I have seen him in basically throwaway or smallish role in other films this fall season including Julian Schnabel’s In the Hand of Dante and Gus Van Sant’s Dead Man’s Wire. His Mickey Albano may be Michael Corleone-lite but nonetheless lethal when he has to turn on a dime. At 85, he still has it. However, in a sadly poignant role as the down-on-his-luck Sam, Rex really shows he has the dramatic chops to nearly steal the picture from a couple of ol’ pros like Vaughn and Pacino. He is terrific.
Most of the female parts, other than Steenburgen’s memorable if brief turn — including Kate Mara, Cobie Smulders and Vegas veteran singer Shania Twain — don’t have as much to do to make an impression, a distinctive problem the 1960 Ocean’s 11 also felt. This waltz is for the boys.
Producers are Christopher Lemole, Tim Zajaros, Margot Hand and Pizzolatto. Easy’s Waltz is looking for distribution.
Title: Easy’s Waltz
Festival: Toronto (Special Presentations)
Sales agent: CAA
Director-screenwriter: Nic Pizzolatto
Cast: Vince Vaughn, Simon Rex, Kate Mara, Cobie Smulders, Shania Twain, Tim Simons, Fred Melamed, Sophia Ali, Mary Steenburgen, Al Pacino
Running time: 1 hr 43 mins
