"De plane! De plane!"

"When the world realize you are a real person and not just an amusing sight, they get scared."

In 1993, journalist, writer, and future film director Sacha Gervasi went to LA to interview people for magazine profiles. These included Hervé Villechaize, the diminutive actor most famous for playing a Bond villain's henchman and Mr. Roarke's sidekick. After Gervasi finished the brief interview, Villechaize pulled a knife on him and asked if he wanted to really find out about his life. Intrigued, Gervasi met with him three more times. Shortly after Gervasi returned to England, Villechaize committed suicide.

Gervasi wrote a screenplay. For years, he and, later, he and actor Peter Dinklage, worked to make that movie. Gervasi's success as a director and, more significantly, Dinklage's star turn on Game of Thrones finally made production possible. It premiered in 2018 on HBO.

It's not a literal retelling. Gervasi becomes journalist and recovering alcoholic "Danny Tate" (Jamie Dornan) who spends a lost weekend with Dinklage's Villechaize. Amidst the chaos, we flash back to the actor's life. He begins a difficult existence in a world that treats him as a freakish sideshow, an object, variously, of scorn, amusement, or pity. He becomes a painter, moves to New York, and finally lands jobs as an actor. After being fired from Fantasy Island, his self-destructive habits worsen. The material has been handled sensitively, if not always delicately. We see a damaged but often likeable individual whose life turned tragic.

An above-average biopic, the film features a strong cast, which includes (among many others) Andy García as Ricardo Montalbán. As for Peter Dinklage, he disappears into the role, demonstrating again he is only incidentally the finest living dwarf actor. He is, point in fact, one of the finest actors performing today.

300 words

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