It's the story about a New York trumpet-playing cardiac surgeon named Abbie and his attempt to mend his relationship with his estranged father Abe, who lives in Hollywood and works as a film extra and who has been a personal embarrassment to him his whole life.
Ironically, he himself has a cardiac arrest of his own while doing open heart surgery. This near-death experience is the motivating factor for him flying to California to visit his father to try to patch things up.
The plot itself is fairly conventional. They fight and argue, make up, and the story ends with Abe's death. What makes this work is the characters involved and the detail work in setting up the situation and scenes. (The humor is very Yiddish, which I like.) Abe is not just an extra, he is the King of the Extras. From time to time, he "loses his geography" and starts reciting the speech from Inherit the Wind. His apartment has black-and-white photos from classic films with arrows drawn on them with the note me written alongside. Plus the origin of the courtroom wullah-wullah and other comedic gems.
The highlight of the film for me, the reason -- for which if there is no other reason why to watch this movie, this is it -- the mariachi Hava Nagila and hora. Truly touching and funny! And if you're not sobbing when Abe dies at the end -- well then, I submit that there's something wrong with you.
The movie stars Billy Crystal and Alan King (whom I discovered on TV in the 70s when he did his End of the World and his Second Annual End of the World specials), and is directed by Henry Winkler. BTW, it also features a cameo by Sean Connery while he was filming the Presidio, presumably on the same lot.
Grade: I absolutely adore this movie. It is one of my all-time favorite films. Perfect A+.
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