Billy Crystal makes a worried man funny without making his worries disappear. We like him best with someone less talkative beside him, and a script that does not explain every feeling.
Fi1m perspective
In City Slickers (1991), Billy Crystal's Mitch Robbins gives a lecture on ageing with the fluency of a man who has thought about it too much. We laughed, then felt sorry for him, because the speed of the jokes never quite conceals how much getting older bothers him. Crystal is good at letting a funny man remain unhappy without bringing the comedy to a halt. We recommend the film for that performance, with a warning about its fondness for explaining what he has already shown us.
When Harry Met Sally... (1989) had established him as a romantic comedy lead opposite Meg Ryan, with the timing and likability to sustain a central role. City Slickers made his ordinary man's dissatisfaction the basis of a western adventure. In Analyze This (1999), he played therapist Dr Ben Sobel opposite Robert De Niro; Monsters, Inc. (2001) took him into animation as the voice of Mike Wazowski.
Ron Underwood gets good results in City Slickers by putting Crystal beside Jack Palance's Curly Washburn. Palance needs so little to be funny that Crystal's busier delivery becomes a joke in itself. We can see the limit of Crystal's readiness with a line here: sometimes another quip is the last thing the scene needs. Daniel Stern and Bruno Kirby offer a different sort of support, making the friendship feel worn-in through banter that suggests these men have heard one another's routines before. Crystal is convincing as one of that slightly weary trio.
Writers Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel supply plenty of jokes, but their speeches about dissatisfaction and renewal are less useful. Once Crystal, Stern and Kirby have persuaded us that the friendship matters, further explanation only slows the film down. The warmth is already there in the way the actors deal with one another, and Crystal deserves credit for making it clear beneath the chatter. Start with When Harry Met Sally...; choose City Slickers when a comedy-western appeals and a few earnest speeches will not spoil the evening.
Biography
Billy Crystal is an American actor, comedian, writer and producer. He was born William Edward Crystal on 14 March 1948 in New York and raised in Long Beach on Long Island. He studied theatre at Nassau Community College and film and television directing at New York University, graduating in 1970.
Crystal first gained prominence playing Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom Soap (1977–1981). He became a film star in the late 1980s and 1990s with roles including Harry Burns in When Harry Met Sally... (1989) and Mitch Robbins in City Slickers (1991). He is also known for voicing Mike Wazowski in the Monsters, Inc. franchise (2001, 2013) and for roles in The Princess Bride (1987) and Analyze This (1999). Crystal has hosted the Academy Awards on nine occasions.
