"Late Fame" Review: Willem Dafoe's Poet in the Autumn of His Life
According to Wall Street Journal critic Kyle Smith, Kent Jones' Arthur Schnitzler adaptation tells the story of intellectuals fawning over a once-celebrated writer now working at a post office, delivered like a small, elegant poem.
Ed Saxberger is a man of letters: he works at the post office. He's also a literary genius. Or should that be "was" a genius? Back in 1979, he published a book of poems still admired in very small but very devoted circles. In "Late Fame" he's now elderly, played by Willem Dafoe with a calm sense of balance.
His life is upended by the visit of an odd young man he catches lurking outside his West Village apartment. Also starring Greta Lee and Edmund Donovan, the film follows an intellectual circle that rediscovers the once-forgotten writer and grows infatuated with him.
Adapted from Arthur Schnitzler's novella, written in 1895 but not published until this century, "Late Fame" is a character study that reaches in several directions at once through its implications, and also a parable. In a way, Kent Jones' film is like a wonderful little poem.
It's also a poignant nod to the past: elegantly braiding together the sensibilities of "Metropolitan" and "Dead Poets Society," it's a reminder that the belated arrival of fame can both heal a person and wound them anew.