It’s no secret that Christopher Walken’s got moves. The man cut a rug with singular style in the timeless video for Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon of Choice,” and he held his own against a horrifically mutated John Travolta as the parents of hair-hopper Tracy Turnblad in the Hairspray movie-musical. But for his latest foray into the intersection between music and film, Walken will dial things back a notch, forgoing his exuberant quick-stepping for a more pensive role. In the Tribeca breakout One More Time, slated for a release on April 8, he’s got the music in him, but he’s also got plenty of regret, sorrow, and self-absorption too.
He plays a fading crooner in the tradition of Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra (and, more directly, in the tradition of Al Pacino in Danny Collins) named Paul Lombardo, getting restless and looking to re-engineer a comeback. The colorfully-clad Paul is but one part of this two-hander; the film focuses mostly on his estranged daughter Jude (Amber Heard), a rudderless musician tired of commercial jingles and empty hookups. She and her father will attempt to scrape the remnants of their life in parallel, all guided by the power of song. The supporting cast doesn’t look too bad, either, corralling New York indie fixtures Kelli Garner, Hamish Linklater, and Oliver Platt to fill out the family.
The new trailer embedded above, which inexcusably does not include any samples of the song “One More Time” by Daft Punk, promises a tenderly felt character drama with a handful of tunes to speed things along. Does the world really need another film about a good-looking twentysomething navigating her quarter-life crisis? Probably not, but what the world needs now definitely is Christopher Walken in another role that’ll afford him the opportunity to sing, so it’s all really a wash.
