Two decades after his last film, the legendary Jerry Lewis performs a truly unfortunate encore playing an elderly widower in writer-director Daniel Noah’s morose and thoroughly unconvincing drama.
After the death of his beloved wife of 65 years (Claire Bloom), retired jazz musician Max finds evidence that she might have been unfaithful back in 1959. Despite gentle discouragement from his granddaughter (Kerry Bishé), Max decides to flee his new home in assisted living and track down the man in question (Dean Stockwell) for a confrontation that creepily occurs on the man’s deathbed.
Lewis, who turned 90 in March (he made this movie about four years ago), crankily mugs his way through much of the dirge that is “Max Rose,’’ which squanders a fine cast that includes Kevin Pollak, Mort Sahl and Illeana Douglas.