Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Cody Calahan
Starring: RJ Mitte, Peter Outerbridge, Ari Millen, Nicholas Campbell, Martin
Roach
A man walks into a bar…
So begins a thousand stories, including not just the central setup of
director Cody Calahan's The Oak Room but a shaggy
dog story within its main story. There are two bars featured here, and
several men walk into them. And what bars they are, those classic North
American walk-downs (think Cheers) with just enough lighting to illuminate the bottle of beer and shot
glass in front of you, and a jukebox filled with country tunes humming
away in the corner (at time of writing the pubs in my country are still
on lockdown, which made this an almost nostalgic experience). This is
set in Canada, and the falling snow outside the window just makes it all
the more cosy. As Liz Lemon might say, I want to go to there.
The first man to walk into a bar is Steve (Joaquin Phoenix lookalike
RJ Mitte), a college dropout who has returned to his hometown
after an unexplained three year absence. The bartender, Paul (Peter Outerbridge), is none too pleased to see him. Not just because he's about to lock
up, but because when Steve's father passed away Paul was left to pay for
the funeral. Steve wants to pick up his father's ashes, having been
absent from the funeral, but Paul insists he will only hand them over
upon if Steve reimburses the expenses.
When Steve offers a story in lieu of payment, Paul gets even angrier
and phones another local owed money by Steve. Hoping his storytelling
skills will win over Paul before his debtor arrives, Steve begins
telling a tale of another man walking into a bar, this time the titular
Oak Room, a similarly snug bar in the next town over. In the story, a
well-dressed city slicker (Martin Roach) similarly disrupts a
barman (Ari Millen) as he's about to close up. Echoing the
aggressive rapport between Steve and Paul, the stranger and the barman
don’t exactly hit it off, but the latter decides to tell a story of his
own…
The Oak Room is a movie in love with the very concept of
storytelling. There are stories within stories within stories here, and
we begin to wonder if the many layers aren't about to fold into
themselves. We're kept on edge throughout by the ambiguity of Steve's
tale, and the fact that Calahan has cast two actors in Mitte and Millen
who look so much alike makes us wonder if there's a connection between
Steve and the protagonist of his tale.
Most of the stories told here don’t really deliver when they reach
their punchlines, but there's something authentic about this. After all,
how many times have you listened to some old geezer ramble on in a bar
with what seems like a great story, only for it to peter out to a
underwhelming climax? But if the old geezer is a good storyteller, it
doesn't matter how the tale ends – it's all in the telling.
Adapted from his stage play by writer Peter Genoway,
The Oak Room rarely moves away from its theatrical roots.
I would normally frown upon this sort of adaptation, but in the case of
The Oak Room, Calahan has assembled a cast of actors who know how to spin a good
yarn. They're all given lengthy monologues, and they all bring something
different to the table. Particularly impressive is
Nicholas Campbell as Steve's late father Gordy, who gets to tell
a story within another story, recalling a sinister experience he had
while hitch-hiking as a younger man, but which now makes sense to him as
an old man whose life hasn't turned out the way he hoped. Campbell is
only on screen for five minutes, but we feel like we've been exposed to
his entire disappointing life by the time he finishes his brief
story.
A story is to a storyteller as a standard is to a jazz musician. We may
have heard the melody a thousand times before, but a talented
storyteller will add their own riffs, their own distinct pauses, maybe
add an unexpected solo to catch us off guard. Laid out on paper,
The Oak Room may not spin the most original story, but in
Calahan, Genoway and their grizzled ensemble of motormouths, we're
treated to a captivating spin on some old standards.
