It’s a Worshipful Life: James Stewart Biopic Mistakes a Star for a Saint

I feel genuinely sorry for KJ Apa, the 29-year-old New Zealand actor who gives a fully respectable, better-than-decent performance as legendary actor James Stewart in “Jimmy”, an earnestly sappy biopic that focuses on Stewart’s World War II years. Mr. Apa performs honorably — he’s got the gawky Stewart voice down pat — but the film doesn’t serve him as well he serves it.Jimmy is a frequently sentimental, low-budget, family-friendly attempt at ennobling and glorifying Stewart‘s experience as a bomber pilot in the European theatre, as well as attempt to honestly portray his struggle with PTSD while making ”It’s A Wonderful Life” in 1946.Is “Jimmy” a believable portrait of what Stewart went through during the early to mid ’40s? Not really. The writing simply isn’t sharp or surgical enough, and the film’s budget is too low to sell us on the overall verisimilitude. Is Mr. Apa the ideal guy to play Stewart? No, but he does well enough. Would Stewart himself have reservations? Maybe, maybe not.Stewart in heaven after streaming “Jimmy”: “All right, now wait a minute, just hold on for one doggone minute here…this swarthy Apa guy just isn’t my type…hell, I grew up in Pennsylvania and never even visited New Zealand…he doesn’t even look like a cousin of mine…plus I was 6’ 3” and he’s 5’11” so there goes the beanpole resemblance. Plus he has a heavy beard-stubble thing going on.”In Justin Strawhand’s screenplay, Stewart begins his WWII journey as a llibidinous Hollywood Oscar-winner. Then the war begins and Stewart decides to enlist in the military, having been guilt-tripped into doing so by columnist Hedda Hopper. He becomes an Army Air Forces pilot and then a bombardier who winds up dropping bombs on German factories. He flew 20 missions. By March 1945 he’d been promoted to the rank of full Colonel. The bombs dropped by Stewart’s planes inevitably caused significant collateral damage and civilian casualties. Stewart was deeply affected by the carnage of aerial warfare. In at least one instance, a navigation error by a leading group caused his formation to mistakenly bomb a civilian area instead of the intended military target. Stewart was rattled by this and other aerial incidents. And he talks about his confusions and anxieties a whole lot.Dead WWII veterans listening from above: “There’s a war on, Jimmy, and if you don’t mind us saying it’s really not all about you. We’ve all gotta pitch in and do our part. You need to stow all that ‘who am I and what am I really doing?’ stuff and just fly those planes and drop those damn bombs.”After the war Stewart suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He was understandably haunted by the deaths of his bombing-mission comrades and by the fact that his missions had inadvertently killed civilians. He strictly refused to discuss his combat record or use it to promote his acting career. Is this mentioned in the film? Of course not. But the PTSD thing is in the movie. Stewart is so distraught over his war experiences that he can barely play the lead role in Frank Capra’s “It’s A Wonderful Life”, and we, the audience, are obliged to ride out the trauma. Plus the film starts to feel lethargic. The scenes begin to drag and sputter. James Stewart with Ginger Rogers at the Academy Awards in 1942. AP fileDuring the filming of Capra’s 1946 classic Stewart struggles to give some kind of believable heartfelt performance as George Bailey, but is wondering if acting is too shallow or superficial for him. Plus he’s unable to shake off his bruising war experience and survivor’s guilt. Capra (Max Casella) can see Stewart is in a difficult place and asks costar Lionel Barrymore (Christopher McDonald) to step in and share his perspective. Joseph McBride’s “Frankly: Unmasking Frank Capra”, a 2019 Capra biography which quotes Capra extensively, tells us that Barrymore challenged Stewart to consider whether dropping bombs was more worthwhile than entertaining people. “Jimmy” cares for Stewart and admires the hell out of him, but it doesn’t help matters much by putting the sum of his life into some kind of proper perspective. By my basic yardstick, “Jimmy” is basically shapeless and platitudinous and almost totally lacking in story tension. Many of the scenes are driven by virtuous speechifying. Stewart was the essence of pure noble Americana, the film is saying. He was pretty damn close to sainthood, if ya wanna know. He’s uncertain and anxious now and then, but mostly the film deifies him.KJ Apa and Kara Killmer in ‘Jimmy.’ Courtesy of Burns Co.On top of which “Jimmy” is occasionally just plain boring. Sure it glides along, but it meanders. Stewart is written as too much of an earnest, goody-two-shoes choirboy. It would have been much better if the tough, scrappy and sometimes conflicted Stewart whom we came to know from his great late ‘40s and ‘50s films — Call Northside 777, Winchester 73, The Man From Laramie, Rear Window, Strategic Air Command, The Spirit of St, Louis, Anatomy of a Murder — was front and center.It’s also a bit fanciful in certain respects. It tells us that Stewart’s bombing squadron got into a hot and heavy dogfight with the Germans over Paris. German Luftwaffe fighters zoom in right over the Eiffel Tower, for heaven’s sake! Did this happen? No — the aerial encounter (January 7, 1944) happened 30 miles south of Paris.Stewart’s WWII bombing missions don’t seem to be number one priority in Stewart’s mind. They happen but don’t seem to register on the traumatic scale of, say, “Twelve O’Clock High.” Of equal consequence, we’re told, is Stewart’s composite British girlfriend, Lady Julia (Kara Killmer), whom Stewart, a randy fellow by nature, fell for between bombing runs Lady Julia fell for him also. Underneath all this activity Stewart radiates a kind of golden glow of open-hearted, semi-anguished, aw-shucks decency, and wholesomeness. Every issue or concern is Stewart’s. He’s the main man, the center of everything, the man of the hour. Everyone wants to know him, give him a salute or a comradely pat on the back or offer some friendly counseling. And in one scene with Lady Julia he even puts on a Santa Claus outfit and listens to the holiday wishes of a young boy. Gimme a break! The film won’t stop trying to sell the guy. Jimmy was such a mensch, a man of honor, a radiant soul.“Jimmy” was directed by Aaron Burns, whose Burns & Co. also produced. Burns & Co. mission statement: “In the truest sense of the word, Burns & Co. is a company of creatives crafting timeless adventure films and stories for the enjoyment of families around the world.” After sitting through “Jimmy,” I can certainly attest to that intent.

It’s a Worshipful Life: James Stewart Biopic Mistakes a Star for a Saint

It’s a Worshipful Life: James Stewart Biopic Mistakes a Star for a Saint

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