The Wool Cap

'The Wool Cap gives off fuzzy feelings'

If you are frantically searching imdb.com for more information regarding this little known film, good. You should be. The reason you might not have heard of it is probably because like several of Macy's other works, it was a made for TV movie. Although TV movies are generally of lesser quality than film due to a lower budget, there are always certain specks of sand that pull together to form a diamond ($#!*, a cliche!). The Wool Cap is certainly a diamond worth buying.

The film follows the exploits of a good hearted but mute superintendent of a rundown apartment in New York. He owns a monkey and eventually takes in a black little girl and learns to live again. Sounds like the traditional spoonful of crap cable loves to feed us, except it has great acting! Seriously. From the opening scene and situation, the audience is thrown into this fantastic world of Gigot(Macy). Although mute, everyone knows him and he gets the pleasure of dealing with everyone else's crap. He eventually has a impoverished family forced upon him after helping them earlier which unfold into the twisting TV scenarios everyone has come to suspect. The main difference in the writing is that it seems to focus more on the revelation of Macy's character than the rest of the story, but through these revelations then the rest of the plots can occur naturally and not feel overdone or forced. In retrospect, the script was so well written in terms of content that it's hard to understand why it was not made for theatrical release, but oh well, at least it was made. Apparently it is a remake of a Jackie Gleason film called Gigot. I have no idea what they have in common. I haven't seen the Gleason version, so I hope that they both share the great story since I am adding it to my rent list.

As for acting, there are some amazing portrayals in this film. Macy, as always, is impeccable at conveying emotion, words, thoughts, and even a conversation without ever saying a word. The closest he ever comes is in an occassional whistle. When we first meet Gigot, he seems like a guy who hates his job and is poor but doesn't mind it too much. It's not until about halfway through the story that the rest of Gigot's past is slowly revealed. It is quite the character striptease and it is made that much more fascinating through Macy's excellent miming and characterization. Other great jobs are done by Don Rickles as Gigot's friend and by Catherine O'Hara as Gigot's love interest/hooker. Rickles is highly amusing as the boisterous but good hearted jewish tenant, but shouldn't win any awards or anything. Catherine O'Hara, has put in perhaps the best performance in her career. Primarily known in her comedic roles in Home Alone and the various Christopher Guest films, O'Hara finally waxes her dramatic personae to deliver a poignant and sad character that will grab the audience in each of the few scenes she is in. Now with all of that said, it's time to observe the future of acting, Keke Palmer. Palmer (Lou), despite being very young shows more promise and acting talent than I've seen from Halle Berry ever. Now maybe that's not fair since I haven't seen a lot of Halle Berry films, so instead I'll just say that she holds her own aptly against the much more heavily experienced cast. The chemistry between her and Macy flies as the struggle to understand each other. At times her acting isn't quite right, but 99% of the time she is perfect and expertly handles a lot of the adult themes and ideas inherent in the story. I say give her several more years of training and publicity and she will be garnering awards right and left.

Now, the directing. Steven Schachter is a fairly new director, which is odd that he is able to garner such an outstanding cast. Despite his newly arrived status, it is easy to see why he has arrived at all. The film is wonderfully lit, extremely well-planned and acted, and it draws the audience into it, a feat that most big time directors struggle with. There are only two real flaws with the film, one of which I find highly amusing because you have to know about it. The first flaw is that the film can drag at times. It can become too heartwarming and start to initiate the gag complex, but these spots don't last long and they are few and far enough between to not hurt the films overall impression much at all. The second flaw is that there is one scene that takes place at the Six Flags in Atlanta, Georgia. What? But didn't you...yes, I did. I said it took place in New York. See the problem? I only know this because I recognized my favorite roller coaster in the film as the Georgia Cyclone not only by it's track but also by the giant Cyclone logo on the front of the cart. This flaw is not a big deal since I doubt that half of the country has any idea about the Six Flags in Atlanta, but its still broke the continuity for me. Other than these two flaws, I don't have much to complain about except that Steven Schachter needs to hurry up and make his theatrical debut.

Conclusion

The Wool Cap is an exquisite film with great cinematography considering the low budget I'm assuming it acquired. The cast is superb and the writing is surprisingly good for a TV film, especially since it was partially written by Macy who is known for being more of an actor than a writer (Who knows? Maybe Mamet rubbed him with his magic stick?). Schachter does an incredible job and the only thing to complain about is an occassional slow pace. For a TV film, this is head and shoulders above the competition, but as a general film on DVD, this film deserves a:
4 out of 5

Wannabe