I had seen THE DEER HUNTER and a few of his smaller roles by 1982 but it was this AMERICAN PLAYHOUSE TV presentation of WHO AM I THIS TIME?, adapted for a Kurt Vonnegut short story, that won me over to Chrostopher Walken.
Basically this is the story of Helene, Susan Sarandon's character, temporarily in a small town on business. She is asked to audition for the town's local play and reluctantly does so...poorly. Until she meets Harry. Harry stars in all the town's plays. He's a handsome, tough guy, bad boy magnet to women and has fans out the proverbial...except during the 50 weeks or so of the year when he isn't acting. Then he's just the shy, stammering klutzy Clark Kent who sweeps out the local store.
But he brings out the best in Helene and she thinks that they're really bonding...only to find out that the Harry she loves just doesn't exist between shows...so she sets out to change that.
Low-budget but well-directed by Jonathan Demme with great performances from the two leads which are the only ones that really matter as the rest of the cast is pretty much window-dressing.
Excellent!
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