Five Easy Pieces (1970)

“Bobby” (Jack Nicholson) is a talented pianist from a successful family of musicians who has spurned the easy life and adopted a grifting existence working construction where he can and when he needs to. That itinerant life suits him. He is a man who seeks casual fun and who shuns any sort of commitment to his gal, to other people, or even to himself. Gradually he begins to become a little disaffected with his choices in life and with the emptiness it has left him with, and so returns to the family home where he discovers his dad has suffered from a few seizures. This new state of affairs compels “Bobby” to finally start to put a few things into perspective. It’s been three years since his last visit home and so, naturally, he is not the only one with reconciling to do - and there are a few at home who don’t quite have forgiveness first upon their lips. The question for everyone here is whether or not there can be any catharsis or is it all just too dyed in the wool. This is, for my money, the best effort Nicholson ever presented on screen. Coupled with some really quite poignant writing and paced at times as if it were a fly-on-the-wall documentary, we see a man about whom we probably couldn’t have cared less at the start expose his flaws, demons and humanity - and even then, there’s still a distinct possibility we won’t care. It’s good to see Ralph Waite - forever “John Walton” - take on a much more substantial and nuanced role as “Carl” and on that front, plaudits also have to go for an emotionally charged effort from Karen Black’s “Rayette” - the long-suffering girlfriend whom you frequently wonder shouldn’t just drop him like an hot brick. The soundtrack also plays quite a powerful role in this film with a sensitive mix of predominately country music ballads paired with some of the finest pieces of classical piano works - supposedly emanating from “Bobby” and from his sister “Partita” (Lois Smith). Essentially, it is a coming of age story only this one isn’t so much about in the traditional vein of loved-up hormones, more about adulthood and growing up by a man who lives in an uncomfortably claustrophobic world largely of his own choosing.