No, Jack Nicholson doesn't play his "usual jerk persona". Five Easy Pieces was his first lead part in his career and even after his star-making turn in Easy Rider, few could have guessed he had that range in him. Bob Rafelson and Carol Eastman, the screenwriter, knew him well and more or less created the template for most of his next parts.
Nicholson's character might act like a jerk but the point of the whole movie is to understand why he does and why he's unable to behave in another way. He's not bad in essence. You slowly realize he had some trauma due to his family. His father was more than likely obsessed by music and excellence (Nicholson's name is Robert Eroica, as a tribute to Beethoven). He learnt the piano as a kid. He was very talented, maybe the most talented of the siblings. But he had never asked for this kind of life and a career in music. He felt the pompous and intellectual conversations (the scenes with Carl or the evening with the guests show the mood) phony and fake. As a result, he felt isolated and basically cut all connections to his family (except his sister, who was always sympathetic to him).
He's a deeply sad and melancholic character except for the sudden outburst of humor or violence. He's unable to express any feeling as Susan Anspach tells him. The only scene in which he lets his guard down is when he speaks to his father and he acknowledges that he can speak his mind because the father is unable to talk.
As a result, he more or less deliberately screwed up his life when he left home. He took menial jobs, changed places several times. He's dating a not very smart waitress. When she or other people show him some kindness, he hurts their feelings
He's mostly attracted to Anspach because she's attractive, she dates his brother (he always makes fun of him behind his back) and because he thinks for a brief time she could bring him some kind of salvation. But actually he's still unable to understand her or to develop a genuine connection with her. And when he realizes that Karen Black is now attached to him, because she's pregnant, because they were treated as a couple by his sister, he feels that he can't spend the rest of his life with her because she's quite dumb, and because he can't really give her the kind of affection she seeks other than by lying to her. So, he leaves her just as he left his family, without warning or explanation. The final scene, when he repeats over and over "I'm fine" is him being in pain. He escaped one more time but he won't find any issue.
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Sweet T
13 years ago
@El Bacho: Thank you for your insighful review. I felt the same as the O.P., so you are really being helpful. I now more fully realize what I have been watching, although it doesn't really change my minor appreciation of this movie.
'All music is folk music. I ain't never heard no horse sing no song' - Louis Armstrong
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