Nolte chalks up a win in 'Off the Black'

You'd think that after so many years battling personal demons, Nick Nolte might have seen an early grave, fallen off the cinematic radar or, at the very least, been relegated to has-been actor status taking any job he could get. Yet despite his troubles, Nolte has always found good roles -- and has worked continually for decades.

His latest role as a hapless drunk in James Ponsoldt's feature film debut, "Off the Black," is another good one that doesn't look like much of a stretch -- in a couple of scenes he looks eerily similar to his infamous mugshot of a few years ago -- but requires the kind of finesse that keeps it from becoming too sentimental. And Nolte plays it just right.

Trevor Morgan employs the same kind of care with his role as Dave, a heartbroken teenager whose mother up and left two years earlier. With Dave's father (Timothy Hutton) in a constant state of shock, it's up to Dave to create some semblance of a life for himself and his younger sister.

Ray Cook (Nolte) works in a scrapyard to pay the bills but umps high school baseball games for fun. One particular day he calls "ball four," which walks in the winning run against the hometown team. Dave is the pitcher. Ray's questionable call sets in motion a friendship between the two, which at first seems unlikely but as their stories unravel makes perfect sense. Dave needs a father figure; Ray needs companionship.

When Ray is at home, he spends his time drinking, sleeping and making videotaped diaries of his day-to-day life, putting on a fake smile and positive outlook, which belie his pained reality. Ray does manage to hold onto little bits of hope, however. He gets an invitation to his 40th high school reunion and he wants to go. His health is declining, and the reunion could be his last chance to let people know he still exists and that his life mattered.

Ray's plan hinges on Dave's agreeing to accompany him and pose as his son. Dave is reluctant but as the two get to know each other better -- Ray takes him fishing, lets him drink beer and they talk, like fathers and sons might -- he looks forward to it. The scene where Ray shows up at Dave's house to pick him up for the reunion is both amusing and somewhat troubling. Dave comes down the stairs in a suit and his father sees them out the door like it's prom night. In any other film the father would have many questions and most likely would object to a fiftysomething man he's never met taking his 17-year-old son to "a dance," as Dave puts it.

This film is full of these odd little moments that make us ponder such things, but not to the point of total distraction. Through Ray, Dave becomes friendly with a young single mother. They like each other, and they know they like each other, but neither acts on it. What teenage boy wouldn't make a move on an older woman who seems interested? The kind who's a lle wise beyond his years; the kind who knows if something's going to happen, it can happen later as much as sooner.

The beauty of this film lies in its sense of promise. All the characters are in crisis, yet no one completely falls apart. It's like that losing pitch that brought Ray and Dave together: it was so close, but just enough off the black.