In Arthur Newman, Oscar-winner Colin Firth plays a man who fakes his death and buys himself a new identity. Wallace Avery is a divorced, washed-up amateur golfer whose son and girlfriend both hate him. He “once had very big dreams and has reached an age where he’s on the brink of writing himself off. He’s disappointed, ” Firth says. “They called him the choker because he would always choke on the final hole [in golf]. His marriage proved unsatisfactory. His relationship with his son is unsatisfactory. He has a bad relationship with his current girlfriend. And he just decides not to accept it.”
After faking his death, he begins a road trip of self-discovery as Arthur Newman. “He decides he’s going to be the guy that he feels he could have been,” Firth says. Along his journey, he meets the beautiful and mysterious Mike Fitzgerald, played by Emily Blunt. She’s “equally damaged in a very different way. She’s running away from her issues.”
The pair travel together, breaking into houses and assuming the identities of the absent owners. ”It’s not the inevitable romance, it’s not the inevitable failure to have romance,” Firth says. “I found it followed a very truthful path about an ordinary person.”
And as for the golf scenes, don’t be fooled by Firth’s sweet swing. “I don’t know what I’m doing with a golf club. I got lucky a couple of times.”
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