Movie Review: Sympathy for Delicious

Article first published as Movie Review: Sympathy for Delicious on Blogcritics.

The oddly titled Sympathy for Delicious which marks actor Mark Ruffalo's directorial debut has been making its second theatrical run in the Maya Indie Film Series. The story of a wheel chair bound homeless DJ living out of his car who suddenly discovers he has the power to heal through the laying on of hands, the film won a special jury prize at Sundance in 2010, but has since received mixed reviews. It is a film that has a lot going for it, but it is also a film that has its flaws.

First of all there is the film's lead. Dean O'Dwyer aka Delicious D (which explains the film's title), is played by the lesser known Christopher Thornton who is also the script's writer. Thornton and Ruffalo go back some years when they were both roommates and students of Stella Adler. He was working on a stage career when at age 25 he was paralyzed from the waist down in a hiking accident. Although he was confined to a wheel chair, Ruffalo and others made it their business to help him continue in his acting career. A few months after the accident he took the stage with Ruffalo in a production of Waiting for Godot. Since then he has done a good deal of stage work and some small film parts. Delicious D marks his first major role and he handles it with honest emotion.

Moreover it has a supporting cast that many a director would envy. Ruffalo himself plays Father Joe, a skid row priest who wants to use the Dean's gift to attract donations for a homeless shelter, and has to come to terms with his own spirituality. Juliette Lewis is a drug addled bass guitar player who tries to get Delicious D to audition to be a part of her band. Orlando Bloom is Stain the band's Mick Jaeger like lead singer. Laura Linney, masked in heavy eyeliner, though somewhat out of character playing the band's tough broad agent, manages to pull it off effectively. Noah Emmerich has a small role as a paralytic believer who introduces the Dean to faith healing. Robert Wisdom, who I've been watching on The Wire and for some reason does not appear on the IMDb cast listing, shows up as a derelict and the DJ's first healing success. This is a cast of professionals and they know how to do their jobs with professional skill.

Delicious D is caught between God and the devil. He has a divine gift. It can be used to help others; it can be used for money, drugs and rock and roll fame. Father Joe, perhaps selfishly, tries to push him one way; his own demons push him the other. In a rather traditional symbolic journey, he has to go through "the dark night of the soul." He has to sink to the depths to rise once again. Unfortunately, it is in dealing with Delicious D's descent and redemption that the script hits some bumps. His motivation is never really developed and his actions are not particularly convincing. Everything, both his fall and his spiritual redemption, seems rushed. The discovery of his healing powers, on the other hand, is handled much more effectively. In general, the script, especially in the third act, could have used some work.

For both Ruffalo and Thornton, Sympathy for Delicious was clearly a labor of love. It was a project they had been working on, revising and promoting for a good ten years. For a first time director with a first time lead performer, despite the problems, they managed to produce a film that can at times hit with an affecting emotional impact.

Movie Review: Without Men

Article first published as Movie Review: Without Men on Blogcritics.

The big buzz about Without Men, Argentine director Gabriela Tagliavini's film adaptation of James Canon's Tales From the Town of Widows which opened in Los Angeles at the Maya Indie Film Series seems to be about star Eva Longoria's lesbian love scene with Kate del Castillo. And if that's the kind of thing that floats your boat, you might well want to see the film; if not, there is little else to recommend it. There is a lot of sex in the film, but most of it is on the level of the dirty joke. It is neither stimulating, nor exciting. Certainly it is meant to be funny, but more often than not it is merely embarrassing.

Without Men is a comic fairy tale set in a small town "mucho mucho far away," where all the men, except the local priest, have either been killed by revolutionaries or impressed into their service. Left alone the women are forced to take over, and after a hiccup or two, it turns out they can handle the job as well if not better than their bumbling men folk. They may need the men to keep the race going, but that's about it. Longoria plays a bossy strong willed woman who becomes the mayor of the town after the men are gone, and while she does eventually get the women to work together as a cohesive community, and demonstrate that women can get along just fine without male supervision, it almost seems to happen in spite of her, rather than as a result of anything she does. If this is meant as a feminist statement, and I would suppose it is, it is feminism 'lite.' Still, it is a comedy, so what else could you expect.

Bright vivid colors in the town contrasted with the darker tones of the outer world emphasize the fairy tale quality of the film. It very much echoes the transition from black and white to color in The Wizard of Oz. Indeed the colors pop just as brightly. Oneita Parker's costumes, except for the few scenes immediately after the men are taken when all the women but one wear widow's black, burst with color as well. A bright musical score including some catchy songs adds an additional magical element to the film's mise en scene.

Aside from Longoria, the film features a cast of other well known actors, most of them unfortunately with little to do. Christian Slater is an Anglo reporter who stumbles onto the story and goes off in search of the town. Camryn Manheim is his boss who gets to rant over the phone in a few scenes, once while receiving. . .well why spoil it for those who go to see the film. Oscar Nunez plays the village priest with broad gusto and Paul Rodriguez has little more than a cameo as the rebel leader. Del Castillo's lesbian feminist is an over the top parody of the typical western's lone stranger.

While it seems clear that the film aspires to be something more than a comic sex farce, my own feeling is that those aspirations evaporate in the leering sex. Sure there is a statement being made about human sexuality. Sure there is a satiric thrust at the Catholic churches' teachings on sexual morality. Sure there is some fun poked at the patriarchal social order. The trouble is that these things get lost in lame comic scenes where a madam teaches prostitutes and the rest of the ladies in the village about masturbation, where a virgin is taught how to get a man excited, where pornographic clichés are played out under an office desk. When it comes to the merger of sex farce and satire, Aristophanes has little if anything to worry about from Without Men.