Death of a Comic
Genre: Drama
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Writer: Mo Buck
Cast: Adam Sandler, Michael Keaton, Juliette Lewis, Albert Brooks, Marcia Gay Harden, Angourie Rice, Patton Oswalt, Connor Swindells, Michael Imperioli, Chris Tucker
Plot: Tim (Adam Sandler) is going seventy miles an hour in his convertible on a desert road. Hair in wind, the sand thrown in the air by his tires, he grabs his sunglasses and throw them behind him.
A tap on his shoulders by his attorney (Michael Imperioli) brings Tim back to reality. The judge, with his grave voice, asks the jury if they have reached a verdict in the case of State v. Larson and the foreman is affirmative.
Sue (Marcia Gay Harden) sits a dinner table in a fancy restaurant with her father Tom (Albert Brooks), sharing a laugh with the waiter, but once he’s gone, she gets frustrated that her brother is late again. Tom defends him saying he’s a busy guy and to try and stay polite, she’s only getting nervous because her brother is supposed to pick up the bill. Tim finally arrives, almost knocking down an adjacent customer. He tells them he’s sorry he’s late and is father is understanding, but Sue isn’t. She takes a jab at him, saying it’s nice to see Mr. Big Shot come back down to earth to spend time with his family, but Tim completely ignores her. He tells her that she’s still having money problems, he could cut her a check, but all she must do is to be tough enough and ask it herself. Sue gets visibly frustrated, but their father calms them down and ask them to enjoy their dinner together, they don’t see each other enough as it is.
About an hour later, the spirits are high, all three laughing and between two glasses of wine, Sue excuses herself to the ladies room. Tim then asks his father how come Sue still doesn’t know what he’s the one giving her money. Tom says the topic hasn’t come up, she’s a proud woman and she’s really hard on herself. Her last two business failed and he believes she started drinking again. After all, she drank a whole bottle of wine by herself tonight and is halfway through another one. Tim asks him how big of a check he needs to write this month and before he gives him a number, Tom tells his son that he’s a good man for doing this. They stop their conversation when Sue comes back, but then Tim receives a text message from his agent and has to leave. He pays for everyone’s meal and hugs them goodbye. Once Tim is gone, Sue asks her father for money and Tom, with a comforting smile says that he can send her some.
Tim arrives at the hospital, and he sees his friend Mike (Michael Keaton) and his agent, Richard (Patton Oswalt), but everyone calls him Dicky. He asks to be on their best behaviour, because they have a tough crowd today and he opens the door to a group of sick children. They’re all happy to see him and they joke together. He’s doing a charity event and journalists take pictures, children are happy, and everything goes well. At the end of the event, Tim and Mike pose with doctors and a big check for a large amount of money, it’s a donation in their name to the children’s hospital. Right before they leave, Dicky said that went well and thanks them for doing this, it means a lot to him. A journalist asks Tim why he cares about children so much and Dicky tries to say the event is over so they can’t accept any more questions, but Tim simply says that he just loves children.
On his way home, Tim receives a call from his wife Julia (Juliette Lewis) asking him when he’ll come home and he says he’s heading to the bar with Mike and he’ll come home later, so she should just go to bed, he won’t be home for a couple of hours. She asks him how it went with his sister, and he says she was her usual self, stubborn and rude, but she still doesn’t know he’s giving her the money and not his father. Julia asks him why he bothers so much about her when clearly, she doesn’t care about him, but he says that family is everything to him, because without his family he wouldn’t be who he is today. They hang up and Tim looks at his cell phone while driving and he received a lewd selfie from a young blonde. With a big grin on his face, he throws his cell phone on the passenger seat and accelerates.
Tim pulls up at a chic hotel downtown and gives his car to the valet who greets him, it’s not his first time visiting this establishment. He jogs to the elevator like a kid runs to the Christmas tree on Christmas morning. He knocks a door and Kim (Angourie Rice) opens, wearing nothing but black lingerie. They start to kiss and move towards the bed, until Tim stops and asks her if she’s alright, she seems off. She assures him it’s alright and they continue to make kiss passionately. Julia, all the way back in the suburbs, his sipping red wine, playing with her wedding ring, looking at the moon. She then removes her wedding ring when I man (Chris Tucker) comes out of the bathroom, naked, and asks her if she’s ready.
Tim, wearing nothing but a robe, comes out of the bathroom all wet. He asks Kim, who’s laying on the bed, if she wants to come have some more fun with him, but she doesn’t answer. He says it’s not a habit for her to fall asleep afterwards and she doesn’t react. He repeats her name a couple of times goes over to the bed. He runs his fingers all over her leg and asks her to come and play with him, but still, no reaction. He calls her name a couple of times, but she doesn’t answer. He flips her over and stumbles backwards, knocking down a nightlamp. He tries to find a pulse, to no avail, because Kim died. He paces around the room, speaking gibberish and his first reflex is to call Mike. Mike is at home sipping scotch and watching a basketball game when he gets the call. He can’t believe what just happens and asks where Tim is and he’ll come find him. Tim is vehement that nobody can know that he was there. He then calls Dicky. He stutters a lot and Dicky tells him to calm down and to stay where he is, he’ll take care of it, but he mustn’t do anything if he doesn’t want it to get out. He asks if anyone saw him come in and he answers that only spoke to the valet. Dicky says they’d need to take care of him too and Tim says he doesn’t want anyone else dead, and Dicky says he was just joking, he was just trying to be funny.
Tim is still pacing around the room, panicking. He wonders what to do and gets dressed. Someone knocks at the door, and he opens quickly, thinking it’s Dicky or Mike, but he sees tall young man (Colin Swindells) instead. Tim tries to close the door, but he’s overpowered by him. He sees Kim on the bed and screams her name. When she doesn’t answer, he rushes to her side and finds out she’s dead. He starts crying, but he’s still mad. He says he knew she was cheating on him, but she didn’t think it was with an old, sad man like Tim. Harris says he better call the police and Tim tries to stop him, but he’s still able to call 911. Tim tries to talk his way out of the situation, but the young man, who’s named Scott, isn’t having any of it, he’s boiling. He punches Tim straight on the nose. Scott is crying and Tim is trying to stop the bleeding when Mike arrives in the doorframe wondering what the hell happened here.
Dicky arrives at the hotel after the police arrived at the scene. A distraught Tim is interviewed by the police, with Mike in disbelief standing a couple of feet behind. Word around town spread and journalists are there to cover the event, taking plenty of pictures. Dicky wonders how he’s going to manage this and takes off before he’s seen. The police take Tim’s story and detain him. The press takes pictures when he’s in handcuffs, but Mike immediately posts bail. They get out of the secured perimeter and are harassed by journalists until they get in their car. Mike calls Tim and asks if he’s ok, but Tim is mad, saying that of course he’s not ok. Mike reassures him that everything is going to be alright, but Tim hangs up. The story is all over the news on the radio and Tim turns it off, speeding off under the street lights.
When he gets home, he makes as little noise as possible and finds his wife peacefully asleep in the bed. He puts his pajamas on and leans against her, as if nothing happen.
Dicky sighs and swears while slamming down a pile of tabloids on his desk. The headline reads “I JUST LOVE CHILDREN” in all caps with a picture of his arrest. Somehow a rumour got out that Kim was a seventeen and he just wants to confirm with Tim that it’s not true. He calls him, but Tim doesn’t pick up, which frustrates Dicky. Tim isn’t picking up because he’s too busy avoiding plates hurled at him by Julia, who can’t believe he’s a creep and he cheated on her with a seventeen-year-old bimbo. She says he ruined her life. She screams so much that Tim can’t even say a word. She throws him out of the house, kicking his shins. She says she never wants to see him again and throws some of his stuff out in the yard. Tim just wants his phone and she throws it at him and he barely catches it. He looks at the screen, 58 missed calls.
Tim waits on the curb next to a pile of personal belongings. None of his neighbours talk to him. He tells them that they used to be friendly to him and they all turn their back to him for things that aren’t true. A Hollywood tourist double-decker bus passes in front of the house and of course they take pictures of him, but despite all his struggles and the drama around him, he’s nice to them and jokes that he’s just taking out the trash and even throws a baseball cap on the bus. The bus turns the corner and when they’re out of sight, Tim starts crying, until Mike arrives in his SUV and helps him get his stuff in the trunk.
On their way to Mike’s, he wants to know the real story of what happened in that hotel room and how all of it happen, he can’t believe that he was cheating on Julia, they seemed so happy together. Tim doesn’t want to open up, so Mike pulls to the side of the road and stops the car, saying he’s not driving again until he hears the full story. Tim starts to cry, saying his career is over and he lost everything, but Mike reminds him that he was once in a similar situation. He did drugs and served time, but Tim was always there by his side and didn’t let him down. He’s going to do that for him down, it’s his turn. His career is doing just fine, he was able to act again and is making good money now. That’s what happens in Hollywood, people forget. Sure, it might be rough for a while, doing small gigs in bars, getting paid in beers, but he’s going to bounce back, he knows it. After the reassuring words from his best friend, Tim tells him what really happened.
It all started a couple of months ago. Kim had won a VIP contest and got backstage access at one his shows and it included a meet and greet. She didn’t particularly stood out from the small group, but he remembers she insisted getting a hug from him. As he always does, he stayed with them a bit, talking about life, basketball and cracking some jokes. People are usually too starstruck to have a genuine conversation with him, but Kim told him all about her paper she was writing about him in college. She asked for some alone time with him. He called home first, but didn’t get an answer. It turns out Julia was having sex with Jules at the time, unbeknown to Tim. He drove her to a café, without any sexual thoughts in mind and they really did talk about her paper. Things escalated from there and she kissed him on the sidewalk. He pushed her aside, saying he’s a married man and called home again, but still, Julia didn’t answer. Kim followed him and kissed him again, but this time Tim couldn’t resist.
Dicky is still trying to talk to Tim. He finally gets an answer, but it’s Julia who answers the phone. She asks him to stop calling and leave her alone, she just threw out Tim. She then gives Dicky a piece of her mind. To be fair, she never liked him and now is her chance to finally let him know. He asks her where Tim went and she says he left with his junkie friend Mike. She should’ve known what she got herself into. Tim was friends with a junkie and a weirdo after all. Before he hangs up, he asks her if she’s really sleeping with Jules. She asks him how he knows that and Dicky asks her why does she think Tim continued to cheat on her ? She tells him to go to hell and hangs up.
It turns out that paparazzi and journalists were waiting for Tim at Mike’s. Mike curses them out and threatens to run over them if they don’t get out his way, but Tim tells him to just drive away, he’ll find somewhere else to go. Mike keeps cursing and drives off, as Tim says that he’ll hurt his career if he keeps helping him, but Mike is having none of it, he wants to be there for Tim, just like Tim was there for him. Tim found out where he’ll go, but it might take a while…
Dicky’s phone is heating up as numerous sponsors call to distance themselves from both Tim and Mike. He turns on the TV and sees the news segment with Mike flipping off journalists and people and now he understands why people are dropping Mike too. Dicky is freaking out in his office and has to slow down, as he thinks he’s having a heart attack, but it turns out to be a false alarm. He always knew that these two would end up killing him.
Mike finally drops Tim in Arizona in front of father’s estate. Tom, with a tear in his eyes, isn’t sure if he wants to welcome his son home. Tim swears that he didn’t do anything wrong and Tom eventually agrees to let Tim stay with him. Tim waves Mike goodbye and enters the house with Tom. His father asks what’s going to happen with the money, because they all know that they can’t keep his lifestyle if Tim doesn’t have any money. He heard on the news that Julia will ask for divorce. Did they sign a prenup like he wanted them to do ? Tim cuts his father short as he can’t believe he’s focusing on money during these troubling times. Tom gets angry and says that he’ll answer to every question he has if he wants to stay under his roof. Tim says he paid for that roof, but Tom didn’t think that was funny.
The journalists are harassing Julia at her place, asking her if she knew or where Tim is, but she doesn’t know anything. She announces she’s divorcing Tim and as she says that, a journalist sees Jules, her lover, coming out of a bathroom behind her. They ask Jules if he and Julia are an item now and Jules, as controversial as ever, makes a crude comment about how he’s now working on Tim’s wife so he can suck on that.
As Mike gets back home, the journalists are still waiting for him. He curses and makes his way to his driveway. He tries to sneak in his garage, but he’s blocked by a bunch of journalists who want to know Tim’s whereabouts and how he’s involved in all of this. Mike tells curses at them and flips off the camera. Dicky watches all of this from the television in his office and can’t believe what he’s seeing, wondering how in the world he is going to get out of that one.
A couple of days later, Scott, Kim’s boyfriend, is interviewed on television by an acclaimed journalist on primetime television. He then tells his side of the story, about how Tim Larson abused his girlfriend and took advantage of her and the situation he found them in. He firmly believes and swears on his life that Tim killed his girlfriend and he’s trying to use his money and fame to get away with it. Tim, who’s watching with his father, can’t believe all the lies Scott is saying. Tim’s sister, Sue rings the doorbell. Tom opens the door and goes to confront her brother, about how she can’t believe he’s dragging the family name into the ground and how it affected her business, all her clients left her. Tim asks her which clients left her, her business is always in trouble. He bailed her out countless times, at least she could show her support now. Sue claims she doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Tim snaps and asks her where she thought all the money came from for the past twenty years. Tom lost nearly everything in 2008 and hasn’t worked in over thirty years. Her businesses are always failing. He’s been the one keeping this family on a ventilator for years, but this whole scandal is threatening to pull the plug and he won’t be able to bail her out anymore if he loses everything, so right now, he’d appreciate the support of his own family while everyone is turning his back to him. This leaves Sue speechless and asks Tom if it’s all true and he admits that Sue has been living off a lie for years.
They’re interrupted by the sound of helicopters over their heads. Police lights flood the darkness of Tom’s home and the police come to arrest Tim, with the news helicopters witnessing the events. Tim calls his lawyer and asks him to come over.
A couple of days later, Tim enters the courtroom, looking around and he sees, Mike, who gives him a thumbs up, Dicky, who looks tired as ever, Sue and Tom, who came to support him, as well as Scott and Kim’s parents, who look devastated and look at Tim with disdain. The flashes of cameras blind him a little as he sits down. Tim appears nervous as the judge enters the courtroom. His lawyer taps him on the shoulder and whispers to him that everything will be alright, stick to the story, he’s innocent and he knows it. As the two lawyers make their opening statements, Tim seems to drift off a bit.
We see a marquee indicating that tonight’s show by comedian Tim Larson at the Apollo is sold out. As the camera goes inside the theater, the crowd laughs loudly at Larson’s final joke of the show. He thanks them for being here tonight and bows down. He looks backstage and sees his best friend Mike, with a big grin, giving him two thumbs up, shouting at him that he killed it. Tim gets a standing ovation and sinks it in, thanking the crowd once again. It remains unclear if this happened after the events, or if it’s all in Tim’s head, leaving Tim's fate unknown.
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