Val Kilmer is Not Acting

 

Val Kilmer’s new movie Val looks back over his life and career with appropriate nostalgia and a shade of gratitude from an actor who never needed it.

 He looks terrible. That’s the first thing you notice. He’s 61 but is reeling from the cancer treatment he underwent just recently. The surgery put an end to his Mark Twain dinner performances and left him without the ability to use his voice. He does manage to talk through a hole in his larynx, but his son narrates much of the film.

Val takes a day in the life approach but the home video stuff shoulders most of the load.

 Kilmer’s story is shown chronologically but overlain with recent developments in his life. His mother died at some point during the filming, or just before it. There have been a slew of these documentaries about a particular actor’s life that are no better than long winded reminiscences (see Kid 90). I’m not picking on them. I enjoy a trip down memory lane as much as anyone. But they often lack a theme, choosing instead to have actors talk about the good ol’ days.

If you aren’t careful you lose the message in a flurry of old VHS recordings no one cares about.

 If there is a theme in Val it’s how fortunate a life he’s had.

 It’s a long movie, but I wasn’t bored or frustrated with all the ‘look at me’ getting famous stuff. He’s an artistic sort of guy that comes alive whenever a video camera is around. Some souls just need to perform; that characterization fits Val like the eclectic Jim Morrison role he inhibited in the Doors. I don’t know anyone who loved the movie, but no one would argue how brilliant he was. Whenever I hear “Break on Through” I picture Val Kilmer’s Morrison leaning drunkenly on the mic stand in a dark night club.

There is a little inside baseball stuff on the Doors but not too much.

I don’t usually like to see behind the curtain of movie making. It rarely improves my opinion of actors. One example is the mess that was The Island of Dr. Moreau. Marlon Brando in particular comes off spoiled, lazy and so overweight that the studio just replaced him another fat guy and took away his lines. Kilmer can’t stop talking about how much of genius Brando despite his obvious indifference to the film, and life itself it seems. Val sounds a bit whiny in some of the off screen stuff as well, earning him the “difficult” moniker.

Supposedly he was difficult in Top Gun as well, his first real break.

Mostly he says he played up the rivalry with Tom Cruise the same way their characters battled in the movie. Whether that’s how Tom remembers it is anyone’s guess. As a kid I like the Iceman character “It’s how he flies, ice cold, no mistakes” and scene stealing arrogance Lt. Tom Kanzansky (Kilmer) radiates.

His best films are the ones where he gets to reimagine a character, or just add a little extra uniqueness. He’s a loyal friend and hopeless gambler clinging to life in Tombstone. He’s a master thief in the Saint, a decent movie that shows his range.

I thought he was wasted in Heat. Part of the appeal of the movie is the big names: Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Jon Voight. Val Kilmer plays a bag man with too little screen time to stretch the limited role. I like the characters he created in Spartan and the Salton Sea, determined and just a little nuts.

There is a telling scene in Val when Kilmer is at an event in Tombstone, AZ signing autographs for fans. At night the crowd gathered for an outdoor showing of the film that made him famous for playing Doc Holiday. After the hoopla, and pictures with the faithful he makes his way back to his cabin in a slightly wistful mood. He’d rather not be doing this sort of thing but recognizes how grateful he is to have had the career he’s had. If not for the original roles and popularity it all goes away. He might even think it a little pathetic but knows not to complain.

A younger, cockier Val Kilmer wouldn’t show gratitude like this. That comes with age and wisdom. So many things need to go right to make it big in Hollywood. The world is full of great actors and actresses that will never sniff fame. Watch his performance on Inside the Actors Studio. He’s at the top of his game, arrogant and playful--soaking in the awe from the crowd. That’s a guy who directors bring movies to.

He was picky about roles early in his career despite making some mistakes along the way. He doesn’t pretend that Batman Forever was a great movie, “Count how many times I put my hands on my hips”. Clearly he didn’t think it had much to do with acting; as a Julliard trained theatre prodigy he ought to know. Still, a lot of guys would love to be working on such a big picture. I think that reality has set in finally.

There is an aspect of religious expression he embraces now. I hesitate to say dogmatic adherence to a set of principles, he’s way too artistic for that. His parents were members of a Christian Science church, the spirituality of which found its way into his paintings (yes he paints too). A lot of it has to do with his cancer and treatment. Disease levels all of us and we feel something we might have never felt otherwise, vulnerable. I don’t know his level of faith in God or even what Christian Science teaches, but I hope he finds Christ in all of it.   

I hope he gets back to acting on some level. I’ll always be a fan. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.