Inspired by a true story, the upcoming comedy-drama, Danny Collins, is the first movie that Al Pacino has gotten teary-eyed while watching as he shared at a recent press conference with us.

The film marks the directorial debut of Crazy, Stupid, Love screenwriter Dan Fogelman and he relates how the story came to him, "I read it, I was procrastinating from work on the internet and I just finished doing Crazy, Stupid, Love and I was figuring out what I was going to write next and I was completely stuck. I came across one of those odd news stories on the internet like, here's a weird story of a musician who got a letter 40 years too late and I immediately called the guy and bought the rights to that story."

The screenwriter also shared how Pacino came into the picture, "When I wrote it 5 years ago I wrote it picturing him (Al Pacino) from page one." He added that if Pacino would've declined to star in the movie he doesn't know if he would've directed the film, "maybe I would've come around or maybe I would've let someone I trust direct it." To our pleasure Pacino accepted and he was delightful.

The Oscar-winner plays an aging 1970s rocker going through a midlife crisis who receives, via his long-time manager and friend played by Christopher Plummer, a letter 40-years too late written to him by his idol and legend, John Lennon. But as successful as Collins is, his career is unfulfilling for him, and as he approaches further irrelevance and he's getting more and more depressed the letter couldn't come up at a better time. As it turns out, young Danny Collins was a bit like John Lennon, a comparison that Lennon himself made in the letter. This serves as an inspiration to change the course of his life and amend the wrongs from his past.

Looking slightly ridiculous as Annette Bening's character notes in the movie, Pacino's Danny Collins a bit washed out and beaten from his old rocker days embarks on a heartfelt journey to win back his family, and moves to New Jersey where he could be closer to the son he never met and maybe write new songs while staying at a hotel nearby his son's neighborhood.

Bobby Cannavale plays Pacino's son Tom and brings an authentic sadness and grit to the role. Tom a construction worker trying to make ends meet, with a pregnant wife, a little girl with problems of her own and a dark secret struggle is the missed opportunity of the family that Collins never had. Fogelman says that Pacino and Cannavale have a tremendous off-camera relationship almost as if Pacino sees a bit of himself in Cannavale. The actors were working together on the Broadway run of David Mamet's "Glengarry Glen Ross" and it was clear from that moment that they were the perfect combination for this father-son redemption movie.

Cannavale relates how meeting Pacino came so organically and that he is the least intimidating actor he knows even though he has always wanted to meet him. He described that, "we were both nominated for a Tony and we were sitting next to each other at the Tony's and it was the most natural way to meet him and I just turned over and said I am a big fan of yours and God I would love it if you could come to this play, I think you would really like it and he said 'I'm coming' and he came the next week and he stayed in my dressing room afterwards for like an hour and a half, I mean everybody was gone and he stayed and I don't think I got to ask him any questions, he just asked so many questions." After two-months of that meeting Cannavale received a phone call from Pacino saying he wanted to play Glengarry with him and their relationship just took over from there.

Jennifer Garner who plays Tom's wife, Samantha, provides the heart of the film and is the bridge that connects these two-world apart characters for the sake of her family. Garner shares how she as a mom could gather the essential elements for Samantha, that it came so natural to her, the in between lines of what it is to be a super protective mamma bear but also to look after the emotional health of the family adding, "Samantha is that, she was just really beautifully written in that way too, that I don't know why Dan (Fogelman) understands this stuff about relationships but he really does."

The movie calls out some cliches but throws some curve-balls letting the audience know that this is not a movie about drugs and rock and roll nor is it about money buying forgiveness but about life's hardships and as Fogelman said, "real life is really complicated and messy and ugly and funny and beautiful and is not clean."

Danny Collins is definitely an entertaining romp and a feel-good movie to watch. In theaters March 20, 2015.