******SPOILERS****** From what I can gather from watching the movie "Inside Out" about Jimmy Morgan, Elliott Gould, is that Jimmy led a normal life. Having a wife, Elizabeth, whom he's divorced from, and an 11 year old daughter Heather, Nicole Nourmand. It wasn't until about four years ago when his father died and left to him the position as co-partner with Leo Gross, Dana Elcar, in a company that Jimmy's life started to drastically change.
It seemed that not long after Jimmy was given the responsibility of co-running the business with Leo that he started re-living his second childhood. Even far more disturbing then that Jimmy became seriously agoraphobic, a phobia that causes a person to fear open spaces, and never left his apartment to go outside and mingle with people.
When we first see Jimmy in the movie he's living "The life of Reilly" foolishly spending and gambling away everything that Leo and his father worked so hard for all those years. Because Jimmy wasn't taking care of the business that his father entrusted him with Leo was becoming greatly alarmed with Jimmies irresponsible actions which was endangering the future of the business that they both ran. He started to set up a dummy cooperation, American Unified, where he was the only stock holder and began funneling some $600,000.00 in cash into it without Jimmies knowledge.
Leo knows that Jimmy doesn't bother to read anything that he sends him to sign and that he's only interested in the weekly allowance that he gets from the company to spend and gamble away. This has Leo get Jimmy to unknowingly signs away his share of the business that he's a partner with thus thus leaving Jimmy without having any job or income to support himself. Also because of Jimmies extreme agoraphobia he became more and more obsessed with his gambling on sporting events. It's wasn't that long after a recession hit Wall Street the the money that his father left him in a stock market account dwindled down to almost nothing.
Jimmy runs up a $52,000.00 tab to his bookie who was taking his action with only about $2,000.00 in his account to pay it off. Desperate to pay off his gambling debt Jimmy had to sell everything that he owned to keep the mob, whom his bookie worked for, from breaking his legs or even worse. Jimmy is now left without money, without hope, without a place to live and without any friends to help him in facing the outside world that he shut himself off from for the last four years. And the fear of having to go outside and face that world terrifies Jimmy.
In the movie there were some very poignant episodes with people who Jimmy came in contact with. There was Amy, Jeniffer Tilly, a call-girl who was sent from an agency who Jimmy contacted to entertain him. Amy became very caring and understanding of Jimmy when she saw that he was more interested in her company as a friend and not in sex and treated Amy far better then any of the men that she dealt with.
Then there was Jack, Howard Hessemen, a long time friend of Jimmies who hasn't seen him in years who came in from LA to visit him. Jack, after a short time, realizing what a serious problem Jimmy had tried to get him to go outside in the world with him which resulted in Jimmy almost having a nervous breakdown as well as almost ending their friendship.
There was the homeless man, Timothy Scott, who tried to get out of the freezing cold by staying in the lobby of Jimmies apartment. When he heard Jimmy talking to him through the TV inter-con in the lobby he apologetically offered to leave but Jimmy told him it was all right for him to stay and even ordered from a local deli sandwiches and coffee for him.
And finally there was Jimmies 11 year old daughter Heather that Jimmy would do anything for, Jimmy even bought her a St. Bernard puppy, except go to the football game with her or even go with her outside for a walk in the park. I really think that Elliott Gould's fine performance as a shut-in in the movie "Inside Out" was the main reason that he was cast in the role as Bergstrom, the reclusive but powerful power broker as well as political king maker, in the top HBO series "K Street" some seventeen years later.
Elliott Gould's acting in the movie is the most impressive that I've ever seen from any actor in a movie that I can remember. Gould covered every emotion that a actor can possibly evoke in a movie or play: Anger,fear,love,hate,arrogance, humility,and even comedy all within the 90 minutes of the movie. With Gould doing it as convincingly as it would take any good actor to do it in a dozen movies with a dozen different roles but not all at once. It took the fantasy world that Jimmy built around himself those four years to collapse to finally cure him. And it was the most extensive form of shock treatment ever put on film, without a single volt of electricity.
A highly underrated and overlooked film with Elliott Gould giving a once-in-a-lifetime performance in one of the hardest roles ever given for an actor to portray. Try to see if it's available on VHS or DVD or if it's scheduled to be broadcast on cable-TV and try not to miss it; Believe me the movie is really that good.
It seemed that not long after Jimmy was given the responsibility of co-running the business with Leo that he started re-living his second childhood. Even far more disturbing then that Jimmy became seriously agoraphobic, a phobia that causes a person to fear open spaces, and never left his apartment to go outside and mingle with people.
When we first see Jimmy in the movie he's living "The life of Reilly" foolishly spending and gambling away everything that Leo and his father worked so hard for all those years. Because Jimmy wasn't taking care of the business that his father entrusted him with Leo was becoming greatly alarmed with Jimmies irresponsible actions which was endangering the future of the business that they both ran. He started to set up a dummy cooperation, American Unified, where he was the only stock holder and began funneling some $600,000.00 in cash into it without Jimmies knowledge.
Leo knows that Jimmy doesn't bother to read anything that he sends him to sign and that he's only interested in the weekly allowance that he gets from the company to spend and gamble away. This has Leo get Jimmy to unknowingly signs away his share of the business that he's a partner with thus thus leaving Jimmy without having any job or income to support himself. Also because of Jimmies extreme agoraphobia he became more and more obsessed with his gambling on sporting events. It's wasn't that long after a recession hit Wall Street the the money that his father left him in a stock market account dwindled down to almost nothing.
Jimmy runs up a $52,000.00 tab to his bookie who was taking his action with only about $2,000.00 in his account to pay it off. Desperate to pay off his gambling debt Jimmy had to sell everything that he owned to keep the mob, whom his bookie worked for, from breaking his legs or even worse. Jimmy is now left without money, without hope, without a place to live and without any friends to help him in facing the outside world that he shut himself off from for the last four years. And the fear of having to go outside and face that world terrifies Jimmy.
In the movie there were some very poignant episodes with people who Jimmy came in contact with. There was Amy, Jeniffer Tilly, a call-girl who was sent from an agency who Jimmy contacted to entertain him. Amy became very caring and understanding of Jimmy when she saw that he was more interested in her company as a friend and not in sex and treated Amy far better then any of the men that she dealt with.
Then there was Jack, Howard Hessemen, a long time friend of Jimmies who hasn't seen him in years who came in from LA to visit him. Jack, after a short time, realizing what a serious problem Jimmy had tried to get him to go outside in the world with him which resulted in Jimmy almost having a nervous breakdown as well as almost ending their friendship.
There was the homeless man, Timothy Scott, who tried to get out of the freezing cold by staying in the lobby of Jimmies apartment. When he heard Jimmy talking to him through the TV inter-con in the lobby he apologetically offered to leave but Jimmy told him it was all right for him to stay and even ordered from a local deli sandwiches and coffee for him.
And finally there was Jimmies 11 year old daughter Heather that Jimmy would do anything for, Jimmy even bought her a St. Bernard puppy, except go to the football game with her or even go with her outside for a walk in the park. I really think that Elliott Gould's fine performance as a shut-in in the movie "Inside Out" was the main reason that he was cast in the role as Bergstrom, the reclusive but powerful power broker as well as political king maker, in the top HBO series "K Street" some seventeen years later.
Elliott Gould's acting in the movie is the most impressive that I've ever seen from any actor in a movie that I can remember. Gould covered every emotion that a actor can possibly evoke in a movie or play: Anger,fear,love,hate,arrogance, humility,and even comedy all within the 90 minutes of the movie. With Gould doing it as convincingly as it would take any good actor to do it in a dozen movies with a dozen different roles but not all at once. It took the fantasy world that Jimmy built around himself those four years to collapse to finally cure him. And it was the most extensive form of shock treatment ever put on film, without a single volt of electricity.
A highly underrated and overlooked film with Elliott Gould giving a once-in-a-lifetime performance in one of the hardest roles ever given for an actor to portray. Try to see if it's available on VHS or DVD or if it's scheduled to be broadcast on cable-TV and try not to miss it; Believe me the movie is really that good.