Oh, how I have struggled with Tapestry.
Seriously, I have lost track of the number of times that I’ve tried to watch 2019’s Tapestry, just to give up on it as I realized that it was next to impossible to actually follow the film’s story. Earlier today, I tried to watch it again and I finally made it all the way to the end.
It’s the story of a family. Ryan (Stephen Baldwin) is an executive who loses his job but doesn’t tell his wife about it. She doesn’t find out until his former place of employment calls the house. “He’s at work,” she says. “Oh, he got another job already?” is the response. Awkward! What’s even more awkward is that Ryan is eventually hired back at his company but now he’s just a lowly salesman, with a boss who is several years younger than him.
Throughout this, we hear narration from his mother (Tina Louise) and the first part of the film is so haphazardly edited that I have to admit that I was frequently confused as to whether or not his mother was dead or alive. Having now watched the entire film, I now know that his mother was alive but dying for the majority of the film, though her narration was still coming from beyond the grave. Ryan’s father was played by Burt Young and I’ll say right now that I am a Burt Young fan. I’ve seen the Rocky movies. Burt Young’s performance as the always-drunk Paulie was always spot on, even if Paulie himself wasn’t always the most likable character. That said, I also spent the first part of the movie confused as to whether or not the father was meant to be alive or not. The film is so weirdly edited that it’s hard to keep track of who anyone is or where they are at any particular moment.
As Ryan, Stephen Baldwin mopes through the film, which I guess is understandable considering that his parents may or may not have been dead. I mean, if it was confusing to me as a viewer, I can only imagine what it was like for him as a child. It’s hard to really get a handle on who Ryan is supposed to be as a person or how we’re supposed to feel about him. In many ways, he seems as depressed when his life is going well as he is when his life is falling apart. Baldwin seems to be disconnected from the film, which is a polite way to say that he doesn’t really seem to be making much of an effort.
And that’s a shame because Stephen Baldwin is actually not a bad actor. Back in the day, when he was actually invested in a role and making an effort, he was a consistently good actor, even if he did have a tendency to appear in terrible movies. Like Alec, he could do both comedy and drama but he didn’t have Alec’s tendency to overact. With this film, Stephen just glumly goes through the motions. It’s a bit boring to watch.
That said, I will say that, now that I’ve actually seen it, the end of the film is effective. Maybe it’s because I’ve lost both my parents but I did find the film’s final thought — that Ryan’s mother was heading to a better place even as she kept an eye on her family — to be a comforting one.
Through the Shattered Lens