Garbo Talks

Directed by Sidney Lumet, Garbo Talks follows Ron Silver’s mild-mannered Gilbert Rolfe as he attempts to fulfill his mother’s (Anne Bancroft’s Estelle) dying wish to meet Greta Garbo – with the seemingly insurmountable task forcing Gilbert to completely reevaluate and change his by-the-book lifestyle. It’s a compelling-enough setup that’s employed to decent, if mostly forgettable, effect by Lumet, as the filmmaker, working from Larry Grusin’s screenplay, delivers a deliberately-paced drama that admittedly does grow more and more involving as it progresses – with Silver’s engaging turn as the sympathetic protagonist certainly going a long way towards perpetuating the increasingly watchable atmosphere. There’s little doubt, as well, that the movie benefits from its second-act emphasis on Gilbert’s various encounters with oddball figures as he attempts to track down Garbo, with the majority of such moments, including brief meetings with Harvey Fierstein’s lonely Bernie Whitlock and Hermione Gingold’s loopy aging actress, infusing the proceedings with a feel-good vibe that generally proves impossible to resist – which, when coupled with the completely satisfying finale, cements Garbo Talks‘ place as an affable endeavor that is, for the most part, more entertaining than one might’ve initially anticipated.

*** out of ****