N.Y. TIMES REVIEW / Billy Galvin
More On 'Billy Galvin'
By JANET MASLIN
Published: February 20, 1987, Friday
LEAD: JACK GALVIN, the title character's father in the family drama "Billy Galvin," likes to watch the Muppets on television. He calls people "Yardbird," and can't stand it when his wife forgets to close the kitchen cabinet door. These details, in John Gray's simple, big-hearted and essentially familiar film, are meant to say a good deal more about Jack's character than they actually do. JACK GALVIN, the title character's father in the family drama "Billy Galvin, " likes to watch the Muppets on television. He calls people "Yardbird," and can't stand it when his wife forgets to close the kitchen cabinet door. These details, in John Gray's simple, big-hearted and essentially familiar film, are meant to say a good deal more about Jack's character than they actually do. But then, surprise is less central to "Billy Galvin" than sentiment, anyhow. Scratch any one of the principals - Billy, his parents, his barmaid girlfriend, kindly mentor or helpful roommate - and there's a wistful speech lurking just beneath the surface. The setting is Boston, and the characters mostly Irish; a lot of them, like Jack (Karl Malden) and Billy (Lenny Von Dohlen), work in blue-collar construction jobs. This is a bone of contention between the Galvins, since the father wants his son to be an architect instead. He wants this so much that he refuses to give Billy work on the high-rise job for which Jack himself is a foreman. Jack even uses his union connections to keep Billy unemployed. But Billy wrangles his way in anyhow and tells his father, in a scene Mr. Gray films as a highly confrontational two-shot, that he won't back down. It's not hard to anticipate the father-son rapprochement toward which "Billy Galvin," which opens today at the 23d Street West Triplex, is eventually headed. Nor is it hard to guess that both Jack and Billy, for all their tough talk, are softies at heart. As it turns out, Jack just wants a better life for Billy than the one he's had, and simply has a funny way of showing it. Billy, for his part, just wants to be like his dad. So Mr. Gray's screenplay must create a series of false flare-ups to maintain the illusion of conflict between these two, as well as tangential troubles between Billy and his sweetheart (Toni Kalem). But it all progresses with surprising ease, in spite of the material's essential ordinariness. Mr. Gray's direction helps give his screenplay an energy it might otherwise lack, and most of the performers are relaxed and convincing. Though the oft-repeated idea that "Everything goes by so fast" threatens to give the film a maudlin streak, its tone is gentle and even mildly humorous. Mr. Malden and Mr. Von Dohlen are well-matched, sharing both stubborness and affection. Their sincerity, and Mr. Gray's, are the film's greatest assets. "
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