I like Dean Martin as much as the next non-Italian. His singing was sublime. His acting under-estimated.
But do we really learn anything new in these two hours? Born in Steubenville. Fortuitous partnership with Jerry Lewis that turns the duo into superstars. The fallout. The comeback helped by Sinatra. The TV show. The marriages. The decline.
We get some decent dirt. Norman Lear says on the days when Dean was on fire, comedy-wise, Jerry was balled up in the corner with a tummy ache. Being the godfather of American television and still razor sharp even at nearly 100 years of age, I was hoping the film-makers would go further with Lear and juicy gossip might actually turn into genuine insight. As it is, we're left with the implication that Jerry resented Dean's comedic gifts, whereas I grew up hearing from the pre-Boomers that Dean resented Jerry's act-hogging. Considering it was the entertainment industry's biggest breakup prior to The Beatles, I wanted more.
We also gain no insight into why Sinatra got Martin booked The Sands or why they connected on music, acting or personally. And we're pretty much asked to believe that the beautiful, graceful-as-a-cat, clear-eyed Dean of the 50s and even up to the early years of his TV show wasn't drinking himself into a stumbling stupor about halfway through his TV run.
Instead, we get notable firearms expert Alex Baldwin saying things such as, ''Martin and Lewis were huge!" And Jon Hamm reading some kind of transcript. Plus more than a couple of industry geezers taking cheapshots at Jerry Lewis. I found it distasteful.
On the plus side, since I'm post-Boomer, I got my first decent taste of the Dean & Jerry magic. And Dino's comedic and musical charm from his TV show. If somebody repackages that stuff for DVD release, I'm buying it.
