Movie Review: ‘One More Time’ Very Watchable Walken Wackiness

Mark Jackson
Updated:

“One More Time,” a fleetingly hilarious, fun little film about family, starring Christopher Walken and Johnny Depp’s wife, Amber Heard, will most likely go under the multiplex radar and become a Duane Reade Red Box/Netflix perennial, although it’s better than most of what shows up in a Red Box.

Walken, that curious individual ... his passing strange syntax, inflections, ticks, hidden talents (dancing), and fright hair were so ripe for mimicry (and yet you must have true acting talent to pull off a spot-on Walken impression) that he had a career second wind from the publicity windfall of Jay Mohr, Kevin Spacey, Kevin Pollack and Bradley Cooper’s Walken impressions.

Like Joan Rivers, Paul's an unapologetic, true creature of showbiz. As is Christopher Walken himself.

And whereas certain actors (cough—William Shatner, John Malkovitch—cough) could never crawl back out of the tarpit of self-parody they fell into, Christopher Walken can, when the spirit moves him. He enjoys his weirdness, he owns it, he sends it up—he did a whole skit on SNL where all the cast members played his family members, united in Walken-ese.

Actor Christopher Walken at the Friars Foundation Gala on Oct. 7, 2014 in New York City. (Larry Busacca/Getty Images)
Actor Christopher Walken at the Friars Foundation Gala on Oct. 7, 2014 in New York City. Larry Busacca/Getty Images

But he’s a pro, and can back off his weirdness just enough, like in this little movie we’re discussing—it’s still rampant mind you—but you can definitely go, “Ha! That’s actually funny without wholly wallowing in Walken’s wackiness.”

Family Feuds

He’s Paul Lombard; a Sinatra-era crooner fixin' to make a comeback. Gonna open for the Flaming Lips, he is. Daughter Jude (Amber Heard), also a singer-songwriter and erstwhile punk-rocker (still sporting pink hair), tells him Flaming Lips fans are not Paul Lombard fans; it’s clearly an ironic hipster goof of a gig, and the joke’s on him.

Actress Amber Heard at The Art of Elysium 2016 HEAVEN Gala presented by Vivienne Westwood & Andreas Kronthaler at 3LABS on Jan. 9, 2016, in Culver City, Calif. (Jason Merritt/Getty Images for Art of Elysium)
Actress Amber Heard at The Art of Elysium 2016 HEAVEN Gala presented by Vivienne Westwood & Andreas Kronthaler at 3LABS on Jan. 9, 2016, in Culver City, Calif. Jason Merritt/Getty Images for Art of Elysium

She’s visiting dad (whom she refuses to call anything but Paul, to his tremendous irritation) at his Hamptons digs, because she’s facing eviction with no employment.

Jude blames all her troubles on Paul’s philandering ways, which are prodigious, and which sins-of-the-father she inherited—she being the addict and her little sister Corinne (Kelli Garner) the no-talent goody-goody. He thinks they’re both batty. Not his exact words.

They are, in fact, both spoiled, but then, so is he, hilariously complaining he doesn’t live in the classy Hamptons, and staying up late editing Wikipedia so it says he’s not “one of the original crooners” but, in fact, the “greatest crooner of all time.”

And while the Lombard fame and fortune may be higher than most who watch this movie, it all feels very real and lived-in, if not cozy. Very identifiable.

Father-Daughter

As mentioned, dad’s attempting to get his star to shine again, daughter needs to step up career-wise, he lectures, she resents it. She plays open mic nights, he leaves his Rolls Royce parked outside the local motel in plain sight, she calls him on his incorrigible trysting—they fall out.

She catches his Flaming Lips gig, calls  him a dancing monkey whom the kids laugh at, and, in the movie’s realest moment, he says, “I know. You think I don’t know that? Who cares?” Like Joan Rivers, Paul’s an unapologetic, true creature of showbiz.

As is Christopher Walken himself. It took forever for the world to catch on to the fact that eccentric-is-too-mild-a-word-Walken is a classic Broadway singer-dancer.

Nuggets of Walken-speak

When his daughter flounces out of the room, feeling insulted, and he says, “Stay!” which sounds exactly like when Kevin Pollack mimicked the time he encountered Walken, standing by himself in a parking lot outside a Hollywood party, who said (to no one in particular) “Stranded!” As only Walken can.

And Yet It’s the Ensemble

The family scenes are comfortable and naturalistic like an old shoe; the cast (along with Hamish Linklater as Jude’s brother-in-law and Ann Magnuson as Paul’s fourth wife) achieves an uncommon level of realism, rarely seen in movie dinner-table chit-chat.

Oliver Platt as Paul’s agent gets endless mileage of Jude’s name: “‘Hey Jude.’ Ha! It never gets old.” And when Paul wants to sing a song and Jude objects, it’s, “Hey Jude, don’t make it bad.” And when she refuses to sing along, it’s, “Take a sad song, and make it better.” Paul approves. McCartney that is.

Christopher Walken and Amber Heard attend the premiere of "When I Live My Life Over Again" during the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival at the SVA Theater on April 18, 2015, in New York City. (Rob Kim/Getty Images/2015 Tribeca Film Festival)
Christopher Walken and Amber Heard attend the premiere of "When I Live My Life Over Again" during the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival at the SVA Theater on April 18, 2015, in New York City. Rob Kim/Getty Images/2015 Tribeca Film Festival

The actor homework of establishing history and specifics (for which Walken is known to have painstaking integrity) pays off, rendering the cross-talking, multiple conversations as little understated, actor-ly works of high craft. This family feels very family-ish. And they don’t even speak Walken-ese.

‘One More Time’
Film Review

Director: Robert Edwards
Cast: Christopher Walken, Amber Heard, Kelli Garner, Hamish Linklater, Ann Magnuson, Oliver Platt
Running Time: 1 hour, 38 minutes
Unrated

Release Date: April 8

Rated 3 stars out of 5

Mark Jackson
Mark Jackson
Film Critic
Mark Jackson is the chief film critic for The Epoch Times. In addition to the world’s number-one storytelling vehicle—film, he enjoys martial arts, weightlifting, motorcycles, vision questing, rock-climbing, qigong, oil painting, and human rights activism. Jackson earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Williams College, followed by a classical theater training, and has 20 years’ experience as a New York professional actor, working in theater, commercials, and television daytime dramas. He narrated The Epoch Times audiobook “How the Specter of Communism is Ruling Our World,” which is available on iTunes and Audible. Jackson is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic.
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