The story opens with a grandiose concert that Collins goes through methodically and then drinks the memory away quickly after. What’s actually unique about this story? Decades after giving an interview, just as his fame was coming into play, John Lennon wrote him a letter asking to meet up and discuss his future. The letter was lost in delivery, but winds up in Danny Collins hands 40 years later.
Dan Fogelman (writer of Crazy Stupid Love) makes his directorial debut with this post-Oscar season effort. That’s exactly what it is: an effort. Al Pacino is not the actor he once was, and his name can’t save a movie that’s so poorly written, produced, and directed. But I will take one tip from the Danny Collins book of regret: drink to forget.