retro movie review: Chinese Coffee

One thing that bugs me is a writer who can't write. The fact that this is one of the themes in Chinese Coffee, written by Ira Lewis and based on his play, is an irony that Lewis himself probably doesn't realize.

The film stars Al Pacino and Jerry Orbach as Henry Levin and Jacob "Jake" Manheim. Henry and Jake are struggling artists, and ostensibly best friends, although we can see right away that their friendship is less than healthy, as evidenced by the annoyed look on Jake's face when Henry shows up unannounced at Jake's one-room Greenwich Village apartment toward the beginning of the movie.

Henry has just been fired from his job as a doorman for an upscale French restaurant. Now he's broke and unemployed, and he shows up at Jake's, hoping that Jake will pay him the $500 Henry loaned him several months ago. Unfortunately, Jake is as broke as Henry. The money, which Henry obtained only by maxing out his credit card (a credit card with a $500 limit?), has been spent on equipment Jake needs to support his photography career.

Henry's other agenda is to get Jake's critique of Henry's latest book; Jake, who apparently has a talent for amateur but learned literary criticism, is the only person on earth who has read Henry's manuscript, and Henry is dying to know what Jake thought of it. But Jake, usually the first to voice his opinions about any book, is oddly reluctant to tell Henry how he feels this time -- and that reluctance just might not be for the reason you'd suspect.

Aside from a few flashbacks -- some illustrating the happy beginnings of Henry and Jake's friendship, and some depicting the rise and fall of Henry's relationship with his now ex-girlfriend -- the entire movie consists of the conversation between Henry and Jake in Jake's claustrophobic little apartment. As actors, Orbach and Pacino are up for the challenge. Orbach, despite being best known as Lenny Briscoe on Law and Order, was an accomplished Broadway veteran, while Pacino has previously played the role of Henry in the Broadway version of Chinese Coffee.

But nearly two solid hours of just two guys talking is an ambitious undertaking for any writer. Yes, Orbach and Pacino are worthy of the challenge, but what about writer Ira Lewis? The answer is yes and no.

On the one hand, I highly admire what Lewis does here. The characters of Henry and Jake are thoroughly three-dimensional, and their dialogue never ceases to be engaging as it gradually reveals various aspects of their individual personalities, their pasts, and the nature of their friendship. I am sincere when I say that this is a highly impressive accomplishment on multiple levels of writing.

But there is one level that is of utmost importance, and it is a level where Lewis fails miserably. Chinese Coffee is based on a play, and it constantly feels like a play, in one of the worst ways imaginable: Henry and Jake don't talk like real people. They talk like people in a play, a play written by a man who has obviously studied a great deal of theater, but has, apparently, never studied how people actually speak to one another. It's one thing to decide that your characters are going to be articulate and well-educated, but if your play is so completely dependent on dialogue, the characters should sound like they're having a conversation, not reading a script to one another.

Let me be clear here, the fault does not lie with the performers. They do what they can with the lines as they are written, but when Henry says "would you like to take a walk to Chinatown," and Jake replies "I do not, I decidedly do not," there's not much Orbach can do to make such an odd line sound natural. Honestly, who talks like that? It's great that Lewis is clearly familiar with the works of the Great Writers -- Henry and Jake's intimate familiarity with literature gives Lewis plenty of opportunities to name-drop -- but his movie's about impoverished New Yorkers, and instead sounds like it takes place in a drawing room on a stage populated by actors in a Noel Coward production.  And I'm not just talking about one or two lines here, either; this is an extremely noticeable problem that strains the conversation's credibility from the movie's end to the finish.

Still, if you can get past this jarring weakness in the writing, it is a treat to see Orbach and Pacino in such showcase roles. And one thing I did admire about Lewis's writing is his character development. Henry is argumentative and over-sensitive, Jake is condescending and pretentious, and both are clearly using their "friendship" to get something out of it, and yet, despite their multiple flaws, Lewis still somehow manages to make both characters sympathetic and even (sometimes) likable. These are characters who have insight but not exactly wisdom, and wit but not exactly good humor. These are very, very fine lines to walk when writing a character, and here, Lewis succeeds very well.

So yes, Chinese Coffee is a mixed bag. I for one liked it, and I think you might too. But I'd understand if it drove you crazy instead.