Josh Bell
One consistent theme in the various remembrances of filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner following his death last month was his kindness and generosity, not only in his artistic collaborations but also in his activism and his everyday life. Perhaps the purest tribute to that spirit can be found in an unlikely production that features one of Reiner’s final onscreen roles: director Jason Reitman’s 2020 pandemic lockdown remake of Reiner’s beloved 1987 classic The Princess Bride. Reitman’s Home Movie: The Princess Bride features an extensive lineup of celebrities recreating The Princess Bride from their own homes, and Reitman expertly stitches together contributions from dozens of performers, all of them working with whatever they have at hand to emulate Reiner’s heartfelt fantasy comedy.
It’s easy to forget about Home Movie, which was created for much-derided short-form streaming service Quibi, broken up into small segments and released over the course of 10 days in June and July 2020. Quibi shut down just five months later, and while much of its programming was eventually picked up by the Roku Channel and other outlets, Home Movie remains in official limbo (although fan uploads are easy to find on YouTube). It’s the kind of lost cinematic artifact that requires specific effort to track down, but provides ample rewards for anyone who makes time for it.
Reiner’s two appearances bookend Home Movie, giving him the chance to play both sides of the original film’s framing story. Reiner isn’t the first actor to show up as the unnamed grandfather who reads a fairy tale to his ailing grandson, but he arrives within the first few minutes, following Adam Sandler’s take on the character originally played by Peter Falk. While Sandler attempts a Falk impression (and is bested by Sarah Silverman’s later, superior Falk), Reiner plays it straight, reading to the grandson played by a hammy Josh Gad.
Reiner and Gad are, of course, blatantly not in the same space, and the lack of physical continuity is part of Home Movie’s charm. Reitman and his actors do a remarkably effective job of connecting action between disparate locations, and the mismatches highlight the different resources that each performer relies on to represent elements from the original movie. These are mostly wealthy celebrities, but they’re also stuck at home just like everyone else in spring and summer 2020, and Home Movie affords a surprisingly unvarnished look into the everyday existence of famous people. Dogs run around in the background, kids offer assistance as stand-ins for remote scene partners, and household items double as various props.
Although it’s produced by Hollywood elites, Home Movie carries the same let’s-put-on-a-show exuberance as something like the infamous Raiders of the Lost Ark remake created by a group of Mississippi teenagers in the 1980s and immortalized in the 2016 documentary Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made. The bored cynicism of lockdown-era celebrity projects like Gal Gadot’s “Imagine” music video is almost entirely absent from Home Movie, making it all the more jarring when the occasional participant (ahem, Finn Wolfhard and Joe Jonas) is clearly not giving it their all. Despite their rarefied place in American culture, celebrities are generally just dorky theater kids at heart, and Home Movie gives them a chance to be playful in a way that no slick studio production ever offers.
For some, that means amplifying the silliness: Jason Segel does a spot-on impression of Andre the Giant as gentle colossus Fezzik, and Seth Rogen relishes his showcase as one of The Princess Bride’s most ridiculous characters, Billy Crystal’s flamboyant healer Miracle Max. For others, it’s a genuine acting challenge, even if only for a few minutes. Diego Luna and Javier Bardem both find the pathos in Mandy Patinkin’s revenge-seeking swordsman Inigo Montoya. Mackenzie Davis and Leslie Bibb both prove that they could be cast as Robin Wright’s soulful Princess Buttercup in a full-on remake. Bryan Cranston gets so involved in the final fight scene between his version of the evil Count Rugen and Inigo Montoya that he nearly destroys the actual chandelier above his dining-room table.
All of those moments have a sense of vulnerability and passion that’s rare to witness in any mainstream movie. Even the annoying-to-watch vertical format, mandated by Quibi, captures the way that regular people typically shoot videos on their smartphones. When Zazie Beetz reaches offscreen for some water to splash on her face in place of tears during an emotional outburst as Buttercup, or Paul Rudd puts his hand out to adjust the zoom on his phone to give himself a close-up during a stirring speech from Buttercup’s true love Westley, that’s as honest a glimpse into their lives as any viewer will ever get.
Reiner’s return at the end of Home Movie is even more emotionally raw, as he now plays the grandson opposite his own father, Carl Reiner, as the grandfather. The elder Reiner reads the story’s final passage over footage from the original movie, as if Reitman knew that no one could truly recreate the swooning romanticism of the climactic kiss between Wright’s Buttercup and Cary Elwes’ Westley. Rob Reiner’s grandson sheepishly asks if his grandfather can return the next day to read some more, and Carl Reiner tips his hat to his real son from some separate location and says, “As you wish” — the movie’s expression of true love.
Carl Reiner died three days after filming his part, and with his son now gone too, there’s added poignancy to that bittersweet ending. Rob Reiner’s dedication to humanism is on display in his best films, from the empathetic portrayal of childhood in Stand by Me to the political idealism of A Few Good Men and The American President to the goofy camaraderie of the Spinal Tap movies. It’s deeply embedded in The Princess Bride, too, and that extends to Home Movie, which served as a benefit for José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen, and stands as one of the truest examples of the solidarity that seemed possible during early pandemic lockdown. Continuing to reach for that solidarity may be the best way to honor the memory of the great Rob Reiner.
