“Released in the UK on Boxing Day – the film has been a commercial hit already but Reisman’s only direct descendants, certainly didn’t give their blessing to the film.”, — write: www.dailymail.co.uk
At several points during the screening, the trio’s emotions threatened to overwhelm them.
Little wonder, as the man being portrayed on screen – for which Chalamet has already won a Golden Globe and was on Thursday nominated for an Oscar – is based on real life champion Marty Reisman, their father and grandfather.
Released in the UK on Boxing Day and co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow – who came out of retirement for the role as Marty’s older love interest – the film has been a commercial hit already, thanks in part to Chalamet’s marketing verve, and red carpet appearances with girlfriend Kylie Jenner.
It has earned over $72 million at the US box office meaning that it has quickly surpassed the performance of One Battle After Another, starring Chalamet’s rival for the Oscar, Leonardo DiCaprio. Experts estimate it may end up taking around $180 million globally.
The film, directed by Josh Safdie, tells the story of an ambitious youth in 1950s New York, hustling his way to table tennis glory.
Ugly row threatens to cloud Timothée Chalamet’s bid for Oscar glory: Family of the real-life Marty Supreme say movie paints the table tennis star as ‘a lowlife criminal’
Along the way he has an affair with a married Hollywood actress, played by Paltrow, and is ‘paddled’ on the bottom with a table tennis bat by her irate husband.
At the same time he is dating his childhood sweetheart – who he gets pregnant – while she is married to another man.
There is also no shortage of downright criminal activity (theft and vandalism) and the character of Marty – given the surname Mauser in the film – is presented as often deeply unpleasant.
Numerous film critics have used the word ‘sociopathic’ to describe the ruthless young man depicted by Chalamet; Kevin O’Leary who plays Paltrow’s cuckolded husband in the film prefers the word ‘a*s***e.’
Roger Reisman, the real-life Marty’s grandson, and one of the trio who watched the screening near their home in Washington State in the US, says that seeing his beloved grandfather portrayed in such a light was ‘nothing less than surreal’.
Together with his mother Debbie and brother Josh, he has agreed to speak exclusively to the Daily Mail about the film because they feel that they have to stand up for their grandfather.
While the fictional Marty has no redeeming qualities, the man they knew – who died in 2012 at the age of 82 – was, they say, extraordinary in many ways and had many likeable aspects to his personality.
As Debbie told the Daily Mail: ‘My father wasn’t like that. He made me feel so special when I was growing up. I want people to know that.’
