I admit it, I like Neil Diamond. He's a great songwriter (he's probably written a lot of your favourite songs too, you're just not aware of the fact), a great showman, a fine and distinctive singer and he's unfairly maligned by people who should know better. But this film should never have been made.
The soundtrack is great, of course - you get Love On The Rocks, you get Hello Again, you get America (which is stirring and emotional even for a dyed-in-the-wool Brit who's never even been to the States), you get Hello Again...it's like a greatest hits package. But Neil's acting leaves a lot to be desired. Olivier, clearly going through his "any old crap as long as the money's right" phase, is hilarious for all the wrong reasons as his father. The black-face scenes are just plain wrong - it's funny when Bill Oddie does black-face in The Goodies because his character's a child at heart and it's a surreal show anyway, but the idea of a Jewish rock wannabe blacking up to swindle a club crowd - only to have the ruse tumbled by a genuine black man shouting "that ain't no brother!" or some-such nonsense - should have been spiked at the screenplay's first draft stage. This is Neil Diamond's GIVE MY REGARDS TO BROAD STREET, a vanity project that's an ordeal for non-believers and not much fun for fans either. Buy the CD, yes. Forget the film even exists.
The soundtrack is great, of course - you get Love On The Rocks, you get Hello Again, you get America (which is stirring and emotional even for a dyed-in-the-wool Brit who's never even been to the States), you get Hello Again...it's like a greatest hits package. But Neil's acting leaves a lot to be desired. Olivier, clearly going through his "any old crap as long as the money's right" phase, is hilarious for all the wrong reasons as his father. The black-face scenes are just plain wrong - it's funny when Bill Oddie does black-face in The Goodies because his character's a child at heart and it's a surreal show anyway, but the idea of a Jewish rock wannabe blacking up to swindle a club crowd - only to have the ruse tumbled by a genuine black man shouting "that ain't no brother!" or some-such nonsense - should have been spiked at the screenplay's first draft stage. This is Neil Diamond's GIVE MY REGARDS TO BROAD STREET, a vanity project that's an ordeal for non-believers and not much fun for fans either. Buy the CD, yes. Forget the film even exists.