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OFF THE BLACK
Written & Directed by: James Ponsoldt.
Produced by: Scott Macaulay & Robin O’Hara.
Cinematography by: Tim Orr.
Edited by: Sabine Hoffman.
Released by: THINKFilm.
Country of Origin: USA. 92 min. Rated R.
Starring: Nick Nolte, Trevor Morgan, Sonia Feigelson, Rosemarie DeWitt, Timothy Hutton, & Sally Kirkland.

A film like Off the Black showcases all too apparently the liabilities of the first-time writer/director, but it also shows his ambition to elevate a story. But even with that, and having Nick Nolte in your debut film, the film doesn’t completely work. From the outset, nothing around James Ponsoldt’s basic premise sounds like it would be that much of interest. Drunk, part-time baseball umpire Ray Cook (Nick Nolte) makes Dave Tibbel (Trevor Morgan), a high-school baseball pitcher who vandalizes Cook’s home and car after Ray made a bad call made during a game, clean up after the mess. Ray then makes a deal with Dave – if he goes along with Ray as his “son” to his 40th high school reunion, they’ll be squared away. Until the reunion scenes come along – and they’re the funniest as Dave makes up stories and hears some other ones regarding Ray’s life – it’s actually dull as Ray and Dave’s relationship unfold. And it’s not that Ponsoldt doesn’t know what he’s doing with the camera. Throughout the first half, we get many a tranquil, scenic shot of suburbia via Tim Orr’s wide-angle cinematography. But I never felt connected with a lot of what was going on, no matter how sincere the film’s attempts to try and make the mundane remarkable.

More disappointing is seeing an actor as gifted and unpredictable as Nolte in a picture like this. It’s not that he’s unconvincing, but Nolte seems to work most convincingly in roles that challenge his skills, like in 48 Hrs., Cape Fear or (in a weirder form) The Hulk. Here, the filmmaker gives him more than a few idiosyncrasies, like videotaping himself talking about the day’s game, or leaving an obsessive amount of Post-it notes all around the house in between the numerous beer bottles left around. But a dramatic twist that comes at the end is setup earlier in the film very weakly, and the way Ponsoldt brings catharsis to the relationship between Ray and Dave is tacky (via a videotaped message for Dave).

Both Ray and Dave have very slim, damaged relationships with their kids/parents, and this is the tie that Ponsoldt makes paramount. Trevor Morgan, unlike Nolte, doesn’t have the ease of slipping into his part, and seems uncomfortable in the role, not quite succeeding in making Dave believable as the real anchor of the picture, who almost needs a near waste-of-life like Ray because his own father (Timothy Hutton, the best of the cast at being deadpan) is still shattered after his wife left him years ago. In the end, Off the Black is an estranged father-son tragic-comedy that feels too loose and not funny enough to be comedic, and too distant with unearned dramatic points that come at the expense of the script and a sense of reality. Jack Gattanella
December 8, 2006