‘American Classic’ movie review: Kevin Kline and Laura Linney can’t save the MGM+ comedy

When theater star Richard Bean (Kevin Kline) needs a loan to finance his latest project, he pitches the only way he knows how: by launching, unannounced, into a letter from… village. At first, the banker was stunned. By the end, he was clapping loudly, along with every other employee and customer who happened to be at the bank that day.

Call me sarcastic or petty if you must; Personally, I cannot imagine how I would react with such enthusiasm when I confronted Shakespeare without his consent. But that’s what happens in the new MGM+ comedy Classic Americana theatrical fantasy for children where the play is only The thing that really matters. If there is something beautiful about her earnest love of the dramatic arts, it comes at the expense of the ground that would have given this song some heft.

The series, from creators Michael Hoffman and Bob Martin, begins with the deaths of two people, one literal and one figurative. Let’s start with the last, because it is the most important. Richard is the Tony Award-winning actor who played his final Broadway role as King Lear to rave reviews…mostly. Shortly after opening night, a martini-drunk Richard stirred A New York Times The critic (Stephen Spinella), who criticized him, snatched his stick and directed Shakespeare at him forcefully.

Richard’s crisis goes viral, putting his role – and perhaps his career – on ice while his long-suffering agent, Alfie (Tony Shalhoub), seeks to clean up the mess.

Then, while complaining to Alfie about the unfairness of the whole thing, Richard receives a phone call from his brother John (Jon Tenney), informing him that their mother has effectively died. Richard’s first question is: “Did you read the review?” It says it all about this man’s mostly benign narcissism.

It’s no surprise that once he finally arrived in his hometown of Millsburg, Pennsylvania, for the funeral, he decided to grab the focus again — this time by announcing a splashy production of a movie. Our cityWho imagines he will save his family’s faltering local theater and thus the city itself.

As befits the title, it’s all about it Classic American It feels old-fashioned, if not quite hokey. The plot tropes are familiar, from the cocky actor to the quaint village to the show that will save the day, and the predictable ways they play out. Cultural references are rarely less than 40 years old; Aside from the viral video mentioned above, almost the entire story could have been set in the late 20th century with a few changes. If his good nature makes it impossible to hate, his kindness also makes it difficult to love.

To make matters worse, the series feels frighteningly cheap, unfolding largely in a set of interiors that all appear to be lit with the same bright, flat glow. A show doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive — as we’re reminded multiple times throughout the eight-hour half-hour season, Our city Scattered by tradition, this did not prevent it from lasting so long that it still inspires new works like this one almost a century later. But the lack of budget, in this case, is coupled with a disappointing lack of imagination.

For all the main characters Classic American Like talking about the soul of the city and how to save it, the series displays little curiosity about the culture or citizens of Melburg. Sure, the glimpses we see of them can be fun.

Len Cariou is likable, if woefully underused, as Richard’s father Linus, a gentle puppeteer whose dementia has him coming out of the closet once a day for his friends and family, and Elise Keppler is entertaining if a little too broad as Nadia, the Russian immigrant whose passion for acting is only outweighed by her lack of talent for it.

But important characters like John’s Christine and Laura Linney – who in addition to being John’s wife is also Richard’s ex-wife and the town’s mayor – are too underdeveloped to earn our investment. Neither their marriage nor their relationship with Richard is drawn with any nuance or specificity.

The next generation, represented primarily by their teenage daughter Miranda (Neil Verlac), is even worse off. “Democracy is dying. People hate each other. The world is falling apart. It’s different than it was when you were kids,” she sighs to her uncle, sounding less like an actual baby boomer trying to rehash what his Gen Z grandson was shouting about last Thanksgiving. He answers with a deep nod Viet Rocbecause the show gets to where it came from in a way that can’t be bothered trying with it.

Richard is the only character the show cares about enough to give him any substance, and though Cline plays him with a gentleness that keeps him from crossing the line from oblivion to alienation, he’s not written with enough complexity to keep him from feeling like a hackneyed cliché of a self-important thespian.

Obviously, almost all of the show’s most striking moments are characters performing lines written by other great playwrights (primarily Shakespeare and Thornton Wilder), often in moments where the dilemmas they face and the roles they play blur together: the plays are the only lens through which Richard or his series can see the world at all. Which Classic American He knows and loves theater in his bones, there is no doubt about it. This passion for art may have given him a greater understanding of actual human nature.