BEFORE: We had a big day out yesterday, we picked up my new eyeglasses (paid for by the recent stimulus check that was authorized by the previous administration - I know...) and then drove out to Long Island so my wife could buy cigarettes (not paid for by the stimulus check). Then we had a real sit-down lunch inside a restaurant - OK, it was the Cheesecake Factory, but that is a real restaurant, we used to go there a lot during the before-times. Then we swung by a Lowe's store so I could pick up a 40-lb. bag of ice melt (another snowstorm is expected) and finally found a supermarket out on the island to replace the Super Bowl snacks that we ate during the last snowstorm. So now we're set for the big game tomorrow, plenty of things to eat.
Really, though, we get together and watch the Puppy Bowl, that's our annual tradition, and then I'll watch the game mostly for the commercials, but I've been invested over the last decade every time the Patriots have been in it. With Tom Brady playing for the Buccaneers now, I'm not sure if I'm rooting for him any more. So whatever happens, happens, I'm not that into it now. Puppy Bowl, sure, and then maybe the Super Bowl halftime show and ads. It's just another excuse for a big food holiday now.
This film wasn't part of the original plan, but I added it after dropping "How to Build a Girl". I could have just skipped a day, but I'd rather add a replacement film, so I checked my links for the month to see if any of them were in another movie that fell into the romance category, even if it was a questionable fit. I came up with this one, because it turns out that Chris Messina is in just about every film these days - I learned this from reading an online article about how Chris Messina is in just about every film these days.
I thought this was on AmazonPrime, that's what I had in my notes anyway, but after signing on to Amazon I realized it was $3.99 to rent, unless I signed up for the IFC program on a 7-day free trial. You know, if I did that I'd probably forget to cancel it in time, plus how many IFC movies could I watch in 7 days, since they're not part of my planned schedule? It was a lot safer for me to rent it on iTunes for the same $3.99, this way I didn't risk signing up for another monthly fee that I'd be charged after forgetting to cancel.
Chris Messina carries over again from "Like Crazy".
THE PLOT: Left heartbroken by a woman he loved and lost many years ago, Manglehorn, an eccentric small-town locksmith, tries to start his life over again with the help of a new friend.
AFTER: Yesterday I forgot to mention my theory about why the relationship in "Like Crazy" might not work out - Anton Yelchin was in "Star Trek" movies, and Felicity Jones was in "Star Wars: Rogue One". How's that going to work, if they're from opposing sci-fi franchises? Well, my wife and I manage to make things work, and I'm a big "Star Wars" fan, she's more of a Trekker, especially "Next Generation" and "Deep Space Nine". She started watching "Picard" but didn't finish, and I just finished season 1 of "Discovery", since they aired it free on CBS TV, not just their streaming service. But I think my wife forgot to cancel her CBS All Access subscription, so maybe I should just go straight into season 2 without waiting for it to be on free TV.
There's a similar problem in today's film in the potential romance between Manglehorn and Dawn, the woman who works in the bank. He's a cat person, and she owns a dog. I just don't see how this is going to work, but I commend them for trying. But hey, that means today's film is very appropriate after all, with the Puppy Bowl airing today - and they usually have a Kitty Halftime show, so dogs and cats, right? Oh, right, and Al Pacino was once in a movie about football, I want to say it was "Any Given Sunday", right?
Anyway, this is the best I can do, given the circumstances, and that's kind of what "Manglehorn" is all about - surviving under difficult circumstances. The lead character has become an old grump, constantly pining over a lost love and writing real (or perhaps imaginary) letters to Clara, his lost love. The natural assumption is that Clara is his deceased wife, but perhaps this isn't the case at all. Could Clara be his daughter, some other departed acquaintance, or even a past cat? At first, anything is possible, then gradually we start to get some answers.
There is one light in his life, though, each Friday when he deposits the profits from his locksmith business, he gets to interact with Dawn, a teller at his bank. She's friendly with all of the customers, of course, but perhaps there's something special there when she interacts with Manglehorn, but perhaps this is also tough to discern at first. We're going to get there, but after Manglehorn deals with his sick cat, Frannie, his son who's some kind of investments guy, and his granddaughter that he takes to the park sometimes, probably without his son knowing about it. (Chris Messina is perfectly cast as the son, who's got a number of axes to grind where his father is concerned.).
There are plenty of weird moments in this film, like seeing Manglehorn/Pacino sitting with his cat on a high tree limb (how did they get up there?) or walking by a six-car accident that started with a watermelon truck. Are these supposed to be dream sequences, or just oddities? It's unclear. So I can certainly see how some people claim that the pieces here don't really add up to a coherent whole. Manglehorn is also prone to fits of rage from time to time - which is probably why someone cast Pacino in the first place - but we don't see those, either, we're forced to imagine them after seeing all the kitchen furniture turned over the next morning.
The worst bit of his personality surfaces, though, when he finally lands a dinner date with Dawn (following the American Legion pancake breakfast, of course) and blows it by talking too much about how he was once in love with Clara, and his adventures with her in Italy. Rookie mistake, talking too much about past romances with your current intended. In that way, Pacino's character here is a bit reminiscent of Jack Nicholson's from "As Good As It Gets" - decades of human experience, but no clue how to talk to a modern-day woman.
There's some symbolism in showing a locksmith helping out all sorts of people all day, getting them into locked rooms or safes, or getting people out of trouble, like an infant stuck in a locked car. But he himself is locked into a sad routine, and he can't seem to find the key to get out. I may be stretching things a bit here, or attempting to find some intended message where there is none, I'm not sure. What does the beehive mean, then, or the boat? It's frustrating that I can't quite grasp it, or perhaps there's nothing there to grasp. It's probably easier to think that the main message is that if you're pining over your lost love and constantly beating yourself up for your own mistakes, it might be better, at least in the short term, to not talk to prospective new partners about that.
Also starring Al Pacino (last seen in "Phil Spector"), Holly Hunter (last seen in "Thirteen"), Harmony Korine, Marisa Varela, Skylar Gasper, Brian Mays (last seen in "Joe"), Herc Trevino, Angela Woods, Sandy Avila, Tyson Eberly, Natalie Makenna, Don R. McLeod.
RATING: 5 out of 10 side dishes at the "Meat and Three" restaurant
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