A Farewell to 'Logan' and 'Lucky'

2017 was a very good year for film. My top 10 reflects the sheer diversity in types of films, in my opinion, that excelled within, and sometimes even transcending their stipulated genres. Two of them I'll discuss today - Logan, and Lucky (I should note also that Steven Soderbergh's Logan Lucky was a pretty good film too).We bid a fond farewell to the screen incarnations one of the most iconic pop culture characters ever, the X-Men universe's James 'Logan' Howlett/Wolverine, a role taken upon by Aussie unknown Hugh Jackman which propelled him into the spotlight.

Jackman was firstly seen in a negative light where fanboys expressed horror at the 6 foot plus fellow who'd mostly dabbled in soap operas and musicals up to that point playing the famously diminutive, violent anti-hero. Jackman's emboidment of the role, however, soon proved the naysayers wrong, and now he's pretty much synonymous with the role, and I for one can't see anyone else in it. 

He established the brooding, quick-tempered beast with a heart in the first decent, if slightly workmanlike film and subsequently went on to star as the character in all of the succeeding X-Men films, from 

the good (X2, Days of Future Past, a cameo in X-Men: First Class)

the 'meh' (The Wolverine)

the bad (X-Men: Apocalypse)

the ugly (X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Last Stand)

As you can see, there really wasn't much variation in terms of the portrayal of Logan in these films, but Jackman was always consistent in the role and more importantly, never at fault for any of their lesser elements. It took his last film though for them to grant him the right sort of material to give a truly memorable portrayal of the character. But more on that in a bit.

We also bid farewell to Harry Dean Stanton, one of the greatest character actors ever, in September last year at the age of 91. One of the most consistent staples of cinema over the past several decades, who began his career with bit parts in Oscar-friendly films like In the Heat of the Night and Cool Hand Luke, moving onto slightly more substantial, though still relatively minor, supporting roles in stuff like Straight Time, to his iconic run in the 1980s where he would steal the show in everything from loopy cult classics-to-be like Repo Man to a starring role in the fantastic Paris, Texas.

He also began quite the extensive collaboration with David Lynch, absolutely acing it in Wild in Heart, his Twin Peaks appearances as Carl Rodd (which he reprised to great effect last year), and in basically a few seconds in The Straight Story made tears well up for me. Stanton could make an impact with small, miniscule roles like any other - see Seven Psychopaths for another 'few seconds wonder' - and I for one can't think of a better presence to have in any film, whether it be a supporting role or in Lucky, a career-defining leading role. But more on that in a bit.

What both films do so beautifully is create a fitting love letter or farewell, one to the character and its portrayal, and another to the character actor. In Logan's case it is director James Mangold crafting a neo-western around the character of Wolverine, and applying this very particular type of vibe to emphasize the weary, downtrodden nature of this desolate individual, a man done with life who can't die, in a bleak future where majority of the mutants have been killed off, and he's forced to hole up with the somewhat useless Caliban (Stephen Merchant) and his mentor Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) who's suffering from a sort of dementia that renders his psychic powers extremely dangerous and uncontrollable.

Though funnily enough, at the outset Wolverine may be a bit less 'invested' and overtly 'angry' than in previous portrayals, the gory opening sequence shows that Mangold, Jackman and co. aren't messing around with this.

Lucky, of course, is an altogether more modest seeming film, also set by John Carroll Lynch in something of a Western landscape, a small desert town, and we see another man, the titular Lucky, going about his daily routine, living a life that has been lived, well or not. Before we see him react with the other townsfolk, Stanton and the film establish this very particular, yet also unfussy, sort of man who finds a certain ease in this humdrum sort of life, which some may criticise as being 'uneventful' but I find peculiarly fascinating, in the unassuming and quite hilarious way we see him grumpy yet not too grumpy dispoisition bounces off the other townsfolk he interacts with, whether he's doing a crossword puzzle at a cafe, buying cigarettes, going to the bar, watching old game shows on television, etc. This is not a portrayal of a dying man or overly cynical or miserable old man, this is instead a depiction of a content man who just happens to have lived a long life.

Logan, too, has lived a long life, and Hugh Jackman's physical portrayal of the character is quite marvelous. Just the way he shows how tough it is for him to heal his wounds, pushing his claws in, is outstanding in showing just how much the years have worn out his body and mind, and forced into a pattern where all he can do is care for the weakened professor and try to forget the somewhat happier days of the past. In the film, Logan is very much the old gunslinger of the Wild West whose best days are behind him, and who finds no pleasure in thinking back to the glory days, as well as contemplating thoughts of suicide which could only be attained by means of a single adamantium bullet. With Stanton's Lucky, the realization of mortality comes about when he collapses in his home one day. He treats it as no big deal, and indeed his doctor doesn't seem to think it's anything serious in terms of his health, but neither can he truly explain what's happening to Lucky except that he's, well, getting old. The frustrations in Lucky come not from a grief over what is happening to him, but rather not knowing what exactly is happening to him, or whether anything is happening to him at all. Whether he is simply existing, and will one day cease to exist.

Logan soon encounters a young girl, Laura (Dafne Keen), who at first just seems to be an exceptionally quiet orphan, but soon reveals herself to be a very deadly sort of 'clone' of Logan with similar adamantium claws, and a penchant for killing when necessary. After an utterly fantastic action sequence, where the two combine forces to protect Charles and escape from the clutches of the Revers, a bunch of nasty sorts sent to track her down for the facility she was housed in, the film turns into something of a road trip. The action sequences continue, of course, including a particularly great one in a hotel where Logan has to fight both henchman and Charles' uncontrollable psychic powers. Well it is here that Jackman's performance becomes a beautifully calculated bit of interactive work, where he brings out the rich history of Logan and Charles' relationship where the latter gradually finds inspiration in this new mutant, and encouraging Logan to take on a mentor, even fatherly role, to Laura, and Logan's gradually crumbling stoicism. The cynicism is still intact of course, in the scenes where he irritably tells his two travelling companions off, but in scenes like a dinnertable conversation with strangers where they ruminate over the past, this sense of a true friendship is beautifully drawn upon. With Dafne Keen, Jackman also finds something rather special in the gradualt development of his brutish insensitivity to her, to something of a genuine care and warmth that was always there, but which he tried to hide because those he cares about always get hurt.

Stanton, too, finds such a richness in his various interactions with the film's townsfolk, whether it's the more casual offhand conversations with the bartender or the bar owner, to his more deep yet never unpretentious philosophical musings about some higher ideas, his indifferent wisecracks to the doctor, to a truly haunting scene where one of the waitresses at the cafe comes to visit him at his home, where he briefly yet so hauntingly shows a real fear at life at some point ending, and him simply being gone from the earth. The interactions with his real-life good friend David Lynch, too, is remarkable, as Lucky's genially cranky nature plays off so well against his friend Howard's (Lynch) kooky and good-natured love for his tortoise. Lucky is a bit of a mess, not in a bad way, but simply a man just trying to get his bearings on what life, death, and the very nature of existence means, and means to him specifically. This frustration is released in scenes where he angrily confronts a lawyer seemingly trying to lynch off his friend (from Lucky's point of view), and the outburst of anger and sadness in this moment is rather amazing, as he finds a sadness in the plight of Howard's missing tortoise but an indignant, somewhat hilarious, anger at those trying to 'profit' off it.

This all builds up into one of my favourite scenes of the year, where as is requisite for Stanton he bursts into song, at the Mexican birthday party of one of his friend's son. It is an incredible scene just in its placement in the film, but also Stanton's vocal performance which is not just beautiful to listen to, but a beautiful development in the character's arc as he seemingly finds something, what we're not quite sure, but something rather special in the singing of the song.

There's another scene where he encounters a fellow WWII veteran in the cafe, too, where rather than being the one exuding something beautiful and extraordinary, he listens to a beautiful and extraordinary tale, brilliantly delivered by Tom Skeritt, and the film really makes you take it in the same way Lucky does, an unexpectedly moving sequence in a film which doesn't need dramatics to make you feel.

Things don't go all that smoothly for our characters as the film's pave their way to their conclusions, though. In Logan's case, some truly tragic events occur in the prelude to the third act, which lead to some absolutely phenomenal acting by Jackman in the scenes where he must handle a death and its fallout, as we get such a mesmerizing portrait of a man at the end of all things, unable to handle or contain his grief and finding it possible to express himself. With Laura, he expresses the sort of love one would expect from a father figure, but with the right amount of pain and anger at not her, but himself, in refusing to join her on her trip to escape across the border with her clone friends. The heartbreaking, haunting portrayal of Logan's grief in these scenes thus amplifies the subsequent action sequences all the more. These actually aren't the most imagintively staged action sequences ever, but they are some of the most memorable through Jackman's physical portrayal of the emotional and physical traumas he undergoes in making this final run, and clashing against a 'younger' version of himself in a battle to the bitter end.

With Lucky the stakes are not as high, but no less affecting, as Lucky comes into a confrontation with the bar he frequents when he lights up against the rules. This leads to the high point of his performance, the beautifully delivered monologue where he starts off by describing his life as having been leading to a point of utter nothingness at the end, yet the direction it takes of expressing something of a hope and comfort in this nothingness is outstanding. It's an incredible scene in his performance where you really feel the weight of his words on his back and yours, as he makes his deeply personal philosophy of embracing life as it is feel so specific to him, yet also so universal in its values, capped off by him hilariously, casually lighting up a cigarette after his work is done preaching to the masses.

Logan and Lucky both reach the high points of their spectacular characterizations and performances at their conclusions, in two truly mesmerizing farewells to them. In Logan, we bid a farewell to Logan the man as Jackman portrayed him, in an absolutely devastating final scene as he bids farewell to his daughter, encouraging her to stay away from the life he has led. I won't lie, every time I've re-watched the film, the power of this scene never leaves me dry-eyed, particularly in Laura's 'Daddy' and Jackman's final delivery of 'so this is what it feels like' when he feels death and accepts it with a certain calm and acceptance of what he's been searching for all his life, to be freed from its misery, and such a fascinating counterpoint to Lucky's final expression in Lucky, as he moves from a stoic, silent expression to a truly heartwarming smile, and Stanton then moves away from the camera, bidding farewell to us in his own customary, unassuming way. These are two of the greatest performances of 2017, in two of the greatest films of 2017, which make for such utterly absorbing goodbyes to one of our most beloved fictional characters, and one of the most beloved character actors.