Forest Whitaker is carving quite a niche for himself playing troubled jazz musicians. In Clint Eastwood's Bird, he was Charlie Parker, arguably the greatest saxophonist of all time, who died at 34. Here he's Buddy Chester, a top jazz trumpeter, who is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour and only given a month to live. What to do but give a big party... The film focuses on the moving relationship between Chester, his best mate, tenor saxophonist Al (Jeff Goldblum), and Al's wife (Kathy Baker) who's a former singer. Director Michael Elias elicits wonderful performances from his lead actors and conjures up well the joy of musicians making great music together. And, for a film about death, this one certainly is full of life.


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