BEFORE: From drunk drivers to homeless drunks - originally I was going to watch this right after "Chinatown", since they're both period pieces - but then I found out the story takes place on Halloween 1938 - and I'm very close to starting up my horror movie chain for Halloween.
THE PLOT: A schizophrenic drifter spends Halloween in his home town after returning there for the first time in decades.
AFTER: Yeah, this was a better fit here - as in last night's film, Nicholson's character has a deceased child, whose grave he has never visited. That's an odd coincidence. Also in both films, he is estranged from his wife and children, forced to watch his ex in a new relationship from afar.
As Nicholson's character, Francis Phelan, works odd jobs for change and visits soup kitchens and seedy hotels, he interacts with ghostly figures from his past - and through flashbacks, we see various pieces of his past life, and learn a bit about how some of those people died. It's a unique framework for a story, but it made me wish there was more of a story to support it. Other than a stint playing pro baseball, his life seems incredibly ordinary - certainly there must have been a multitude of drifters and vagrants roaming the U.S. during the Great Depression.
And depression is what this film is about, on so many levels. I suppose one could posit that Halloween is an appropriate time to be visited by old ghosts, but essentially we're just watching a man take a drunk tour of some of the lowest points of his life.
Meryl Streep (last seen in "A Prairie Home Companion") plays another drifter, Phelan's companion on the streets, and her story is similarly ordinary - though in her past she was apparently some kind of musical performer or radio star. I sure didn't need to see her barfing up toast, though, or giving a handjob to a skeevy homeless guy in the back of an abandoned car.
UPDATE: The night after watching this, I went to a beer dinner at the Tribeca Grill (DeNiro's restaurant in Manhattan). Very elegant, with crab + shrimp spring rolls, duck with cashews and bok choy, and chocolate mousse cake, all paired with craft beers. On the way home, I passed 2 homeless people sleeping on loading docks, and this was in Tribeca, one of the toniest NYC neighborhoods. It's interesting to note how much has NOT changed since the days of the depression. It also makes me want to keep supporting City Harvest, so I can enjoy these great dinners with a clear(er) conscience.
Also starring Tom Waits (last seen in "The Two Jakes"), Carroll Baker (last seen in "Kindergarten Cop"), Michael O'Keeffe, and Diane Venora (last seen in "Heat") with cameos from Fred Gwynne (last seen in "On the Waterfront"), Margaret Whitton (last seen in "The Secret of My Success" with Fred Gwynne), James Gammon (Whitton's co-star from "Major League", nice...), Frank Whaley (last seen in "Hoffa") and Nathan Lane.
RATING: 2 out of 10 boxcars. Ultimately I didn't feel the story pieces came together on this one.
JACK-O-METER: 3 out of 10. There's some pathos as Jack's character reflects on his past and tries to reconnect with his wife, but it's a slow simmer that never really comes to a boil.
No comments:
Post a Comment