Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Ian Holm | ... | Joe Gould | |
Stanley Tucci | ... | Joe Mitchell | |
Hope Davis | ... | Therese Mitchell | |
Sarah Hyland | ... | Elizabeth Mitchell | |
Hallee Hirsh | ... | Nora Mitchell | |
Celia Weston | ... | Sarah | |
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Patrick Tovatt | ... | Harold Ross |
Susan Sarandon | ... | Alice Neel | |
Patricia Clarkson | ... | Vivian Marquie | |
John Tormey | ... | Harry Kolis | |
Jack O'Connell | ... | Chef | |
Jerry Mayer | ... | Minetta Bartender | |
Nell Campbell | ... | Tamar (Hostess) | |
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Ron Ryan | ... | Jack |
Allan Corduner | ... | Francis McCrudden |
Around 1940, The New Yorker staff writer Joe Mitchell meets Joe Gould, a Greenwich Village character, who cadges meals, drinks, and contributions to the Joe Gould Fund, and who is writing a voluminous Oral History of the World, a record of twenty thousand conversations he's overheard. Mitchell is fascinated with this Harvard grad, and writes a 1942 piece about him, "Professor Seagull", bringing Gould some celebrity, and an invitation to join the Greenwich Village Ravens, a poetry club he's often crashed. Gould's touchy, querulous personality and his frequent dropping in on Mitchell for hours of chat, lead to a break-up, but the two Joes stay in touch until Gould's death, and Mitchell's unveiling of the secret. Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>
With all the garbage that's been coming out in the theaters recently, I've taken to staying home and renting movies that never made a big splash at the box office. With Joe Gould's Secret, I lucked out and enjoyed a movie that was better than I could have imagined.
All the performances, most notably Ian Holm's, are stellar. The scenes of 1940's New York will fill you with nostalgia, even if (like me) you were born well after that time. Occasional appearances by the always wonderful Susan Sarandon and Steve Martin only heighten the pleasure of a perfectly-acted, -filmed, and -directed gem of a movie.
But, in the end, it is the character of Joe Gould -- brilliant, mad, heartbreaking -- that makes Joe Gould's Secret so perfect. He is the farthest thing imaginable from the "cute homeless guy" stock character of your typical insulting Hollywood script.
Do yourself a big favor and see this movie.