I’d read about The Boost during my years combing through Roger Ebert’s Home Movie Guides. And while I don’t subscribe to James Woods’s political views, his range as an actor is incredible. And I happened to come across this movie on Prime this Friday; I’d had to give away a show ticket to a friend due to a cold. But hey, I was catching a new movie.
During the first thirty minutes of The Boost, I felt the protagonist, Lenny, was channeling the spirit of Death of a Salesman’s Willy Loman, always striving, hustling, trying to get the next big thing. And Woods really makes the viewer feel Lenny’s desperation in the early scenes as he’s trying to sell some kind of investment to a young guy. In this conversation, he brags on his wife, saying, “I have someone to come to every guy. You have anyone at home?” When the guy responds, “I have nothing,” Lenny doesn’t even say the “Oh, you’ll get someone" line. He just goes on about how having a wife is the best thing for him.
But even that’s not enough. We follow Lenny and his wife, Linda, from New York to Los Angeles; Lenny’s been given a sales opportunity and is suddenly living the high life. Fancy house, decadent parties, dance classes for Linda. But Lenny spends money faster than he makes it, even buying a Ferrari for Linda for her birthday.
Then the tax laws change and Lenny has a harder time making money and finds himself in debt. That’s when he and Linda try cocaine, and it’s all downhill. They lose their house and eventually relocate to Santa Cruz, where Lenny finds himself selling surfboards. The fact that he never surfed and can still sell boards reveals his talent as a salesperson.
At one point, Linda finds temporary work and is offered a full-time position by a supervisor. “My husband doesn’t want me working full-time,” she responds. The supervisor gives a sympathetic look as Linda walks off.
Linda has a miscarriage due to a fall sustained while stoned. After this, she and Lenny start using more and eventually end up in a seedy apartment building where EVERYBODY’s dealing drugs. Lenny tries one last big deal, and when it goes south, he severely beats Linda. At that point, she leaves him, and at the end, he’s a shell of his former self, splitting up coke into lines and babbling about how “I’ll get my girl back someday” to that young guy he preached to at the beginning of the film, who seems to be doing way better than him.
This isn’t necessarily a pro-single movie, but the way the movie portrays Lenny doesn’t lionize marriage. Linda is a supportive wife, but there’s severe co-dependency. At one point, while sober, Lenny says, “She was just keeping me company.” He looks at her like a notch on his belt: home, wife, car, etc. He reminds me of so many people I’ve known but wouldn’t want to spend an extended amount of time with.
If a woman has a choice between singlehood and a guy like Lenny, the answer should be obvious.