Jimmy: A Review (Review #2240)

JIMMY

James Stewart was selected as the third greatest male American star by the American Film Institute. His filmography has some of the greatest and most beloved films in the American cinematic canon. Stewart is usually thought of as an embodiment of the everyman, with an "aw-shucks" manner. Oftentimes, his ability to play darker, more complex figures is forgotten. More forgotten is his military career. That is the primary focus of Jimmy, the biopic of Stewart during World War II. Earnest if slightly hampered by a greater focus on mimicry than authenticity, Jimmy barely veers into acceptable crowd-pleasing telling.

James Stewart (KJ Apa) has it all. He just won a Best Actor Oscar for The Philadelphia Story. He is dating the beautiful Ginger Rogers (Jemma Donovan). Stewart's father, Alexander (Neil McDonough) heard that his son won some kind of award, so he calls him and asks Jimmy to send it to the family hardware story to display it. The dutiful son does so. 

The dutiful son also receives something from his Uncle Sam. It's a draft notice. MGM mogul Louis B. Meyer (Jason Alexander) insists that he can make that nuisance go away. Trouble is, Jimmy Stewart wants to join the Army. No one really thinks that Jimmy can. The movie industry thinks that he is too big a star to sacrifice that for the military. Alexander himself, despite his own war record, thinks his son is better suited for Hollywood and the movies. The Stewarts have a long history of service. After reflection, Jimmy joins up.

Now based in England, Jimmy takes to the air. Flying has been a longtime passion for Stewart. His commanding officer, Colonel Terrill (Rob Riggle), at first is reluctant to have Stewart do anything. He cannot afford the risk of having Jimmy Stewart, America's favorite and most beloved son, killed in action. Nevertheless, Stewart persisted. Stewart becomes a capable and competent flyer, leading his men to aerial fights. He also learns the human cost of battle. 

To ease his sorrows, he begins a romance with the widowed Lady Julia Tindel (Kara Kilmer). He continues to struggle with seeing his men fight and die. At last, the war ends, but the conquering hero feels out of place everywhere he goes. At a crossroads personally and professionally, he finds himself literally on the edge. It is here that his longtime friend, director Frank Capra (Max Casella), finds Jimmy. He has the perfect film role for Stewart's "comeback": a picture that Capra assures him will be remembered long after all of them are dead. The film is It's a Wonderful Life. 

Stewart still struggles with his survivor's guilt during filming. It takes the wisdom of veteran actor and It's a Wonderful Life costar Lionel Barrymore (Christopher McDonald) to bring Jimmy back to his craft and channel his experiences into his performance. Shortly afterwards, Stewart meets divorcee Gloria (Jen Lilley), whom he would end up marrying, adopting her two sons and fathering twin daughters.

I think we as a society have infantilized James Stewart a bit. That seems a strange thing to say for a tall man who was able to play a man obsessed with a dead woman in Vertigo. The very nickname "Jimmy" makes him sound like a child. I think people called him "Jimmy" as a way to make him familiar. However, I go back to how his name is "James".  Yet, I digress. 

I think Jimmy rises and falls on the lead performance. I think KJ Apa is a curious choice to play Stewart separate from the height and ethnic background issue (Apa is both shorter and part Samoan). I will give Apa credit for this much. He works very hard to capture the voice and stammer that Stewart was known and parodied for. Therein lies the problem. Oftentimes, Apa seems to be playing James Stewart versus being James Stewart. By that, I mean Apa is so determined to come across as a James Stewart impersonator that the real man rarely comes across. Apa works hard to get the voice and stammer right. He just doesn't quite make me believe that he is James Stewart, actor and fighter pilot. 

Part of it is due to Justin Strawhand's screenplay. Right from the get-go, we get Stewart and Capra talking about It's a Wonderful Life would be a classic. I think this is erroneous foreshadowing. I can grant a little leeway in that being Capra hyping the film to Stewart. However, part of that seems a bit exaggerated. One of the ghastliest moments in Jimmy is when Stewart's father, Alexander, is talking to his son about military service.

I also think that the fictional Lady Julia romance was not necessary. Jimmy is meant to show his wartime experiences and the trauma he quietly endured. All the shifting to his romance felt a bit like an appeal to female audiences. 

Apart from Apa, many of the Jimmy performances were acceptable though not great. Max Casella looks and sound little to nothing like Frank Capra. Jason Alexander seemed to be having a ball as the bombastic Louis B. Meyer, so he was fine. Stewart's two love interests, Kara Killmer's Lady Julia and Jemma Donavan's Ginger Rogers, were also fine. One odd figure was Sarah Drew's Hedda Hopper, the queen of Hollywood gossip columnists. She just popped in and out and let her various chapeaus do a lot of the heavy lifting. Who she was or why she was Jimmy, I think, expects you to already know. Rob Riggle started out poorly, telling Stewart that America can't afford to lose him in an almost exaggerated way. As Jimmy went on though, Riggle righted himself into someone who grew to respect the pilot who happened to be an actor.

I think Jimmy went overboard in showing a version of Stewart that I think was not how the real man was. I imagine that when he was giving a presentation about the upcoming flight mission, he would be more professional, not the slightly stumbling yokel he came across as. Grant Fonda's "stirring" music did not help matters. It veered dangerously close to playing like farce.

Despite all of that, I think Jimmy knows its audience. It is geared towards an older group that either remembers the war itself or knows about it. It certainly expects you to know who James Stewart was. Jimmy did not introduce James Stewart. It did well by focusing on his wartime experiences, good and bad. However, very little of what made James the man came through in Jimmy.

Jimmy is a decent enough film, a bit like the man himself. It also is more reflective of the James Stewart persona, the popular idea of Stewart as a folky individual. The complex, contradictory man, the actor who could play decent and/or haunted men, was mostly absent in Jimmy. It looks like Jimmy followed the advice his character was given in one of his legendary films. Jimmy opted to print the legend. 

1908-1997

DECISION: C+