Man. This one’s going to be tough to watch. In his final on-screen role — Boulevard — Williams plays a man desperately stuck in the monotony of life yearning for something different.
The film, set for a limited release starting in July, is the penultimate Robin Williams performance in his vast and amazing career. The tragic death of the comedy legend shocked the world almost one year ago and shook us all to our core. One of the funniest people to ever grace the Earth was gone and we were left wondering why. While we’ll never really know what lead to his untimely passing, we can at least take comfort in the amazing performances he gave the world over the years. While mostly known for his comedic roles, Williams continually gave us absolutely beautiful dramatic performances over the years that made him truly stand out among his contemporaries.
In dramatic roles like his in Insomnia, Awakenings, or One Hour Photo, we’re given performances that are captivating in their subtlety. In films like Dead Poets Society, The Fischer King, Good Will Hunting and Patch Adams, where Robin was clearly the comedic aspect in them, he still gave the characters a vulnerability that, despite the more exaggerated aspects of the films or characters, kept them grounded and human. There is a profound sense of comedy even in the darkest moments of life and Williams not only knew how to tap into that, but to control every single bit of it.
From the short minute and forty seconds of the Boulevard trailer, it appears this performance will be one of his best and as his final on-screen part, it will hopefully serve as a a fitting cap to his amazing career. If the trailer is any indication, we’re going to see an intimate performance of a character who is in pain, vulnerable and wanting to make a change if only to feel alive for the first time in ages. It is of course rather easy to draw some real life parallels and as coincidental as it may be it does seem rather fitting that the second to last Robin Williams film will be a painful and heartfelt dramatic one where we can appreciate the true artist the man was.
Robin’s last film, a comedy where he voices a dog playing opposite Simon Pegg, should send us off with one final laugh or two.
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What are your favorite Robin Williams roles? Let us know in the comments.
