SNAPSHOT
In Boulevard, the routine of everyday life quietly peels away to reveal the struggle of a loving husband in conflict with his inner-self. Nolan Mack (Williams) and his wife Joy (Baker) wake up under the same roof each morning, their separate bedrooms underscoring the disparate worlds they’re living in. Nolan’s disconnection carries on in his job at the bank, where even a promotion cannot seem to lift the emptiness that permeates his life. His emotional journey begins to unfold when Nolan encounters a troubled young man (Aguire). Nolan finds himself forced, for the first time, to confront the loneliness of his longtime marriage. While bravely risking every relationship in his life, Nolan opens himself to an incredible opportunity where desire might find its way back into his heart. (official synopsis via Coming Soon)
Coming to terms who you really are is never an easy thing, largely because it can often mean drastic changes in the life you lead, and often, the people with whom you live it.
That is quite often the case with coming out, a process which I can attest from personal experience is both joyously liberating – finally being able to yourself is an absolute joy beyond words – and frightening beyond belief.
You know you need to make the move, to tell the world all about your authentic self but even knowing what you will gain, and those gains are considerable, it’s often still hard to look past what you will lose.
However, in the end life has a way of upending the apple cart whether we’re aware it’s happening or not, the pressure of being someone you are not becoming too much to bear, which is the case with Nolan Mack, played with a poignant resonance by Robin Williams in his last onscreen performance, who realises late in life that his homosexuality is a reality which can no longer be denied.
Coming to terms with that unleashes a long stopped-up can of worms that upends everything Mack has ever known, but once the process has begun, one set in train by a random late night drive down an unfamiliar street, there is no stopping it and no one’s life, most of all Mack’s, will be the same once the dust has settled.
Given Williams’ well-regarded performances in serious dramas such as The World According to Garp, One Hour Photo, Insomnia, and of course, Dead Poets Society and Good Will Hunting, and a handful of positive reviews following the film’s premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, there’s every reason to believe Boulevard will be a final worthy entry in the actor’s highly admirable, but lamentably cut short, canon of work.
If you add to this final touching dramatic performance, Williams’ voice work as a wise cracking dog in upcoming comedy Absolutely Anything, you have, as Screenrant sagely pointed out, “as good an encapsulation of what made Robin Williams great as any.”
Boulevard premieres on 10 July 2015 in USA.