|
Directed by: Michael Mayer Starring: Colin Farrell, Robin Wright-Penn, Dallas Roberts, Sissy Spacek, Matt Frewer Just like we'll continue to see films about the Holocaust, so we shall have to endure movies about those dirty hippies and their untraditional lives. The music, the drugs, the wide-open ideas - I'm sure it was great. But by now it's just become tired. Thankfully, A Home at the End of the World puts a visceral and unedited spin on that era, even if it explores the same themes as most of its predecessors. Starting in the late sixties, it chronicles 15 years of a Cleveland native's personal journey. In high school he meets a fellow oddball named Johnny, and his new friend's family all but adopts him. The movie watches both young men through adulthood and the crisscrossed relationships they encounter. Farrell delivers one of his best performances as the eclectic, simple-minded protagonist, Bobby. The rest of the acting is solid, but falls short of anything spectacular. What I liked, and disliked, most about the movie was it was difficult to watch at times. Adolescent boys exploring their sexuality together, a 9 year-old using LSD, plenty of tragic death throughout. All of the main characters have some sort of issue with sexuality, but that's definitely an overplayed theme in film of the last decade. There is subtle commentary on the culture and public health issues of 1980's male homosexuality, but again, that's been explored often in other films, and not with any particularly unique insight in this one. The film does tend to explore these themes with a straightforward, raw sort of depiction, but it ends up just smacking of explicit for explicit's sake. In Michael Mayer's defense, most films have difficulty tackling such tumultuous themes delicately - and he manages to paint the whole film with an aura of tenderness, which I imagine is quite a difficult, if not entirely entertaining, feat. But themes aside, this film has a horrible tendency to stagnate. It starts out strong, but the plot has no real driving force - the characters just limp along until the movie finally ends. Great films leave me full of life at the end, bursting to see 2 hours more. But A Home at the End of the World left me with the same feeling of "Meh.." that I would get from watching a mediocre episode of Law and Order. RATING: 3 PROS: Compelling, unique, solid acting CONS: Difficult subject matter, often slow, tired themes, overly melodramatic ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0359423/
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2004 05:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 08:43 |
|
|
I was poking around at Blockbuster tonight and came across this movie. I had heard a lot about it when it came out, so I decided to rent it and see what all the buzz was about. I can see where all the praise from the movie came from, it was very well acted, well directed, and overall well cut. But I agree with the original poster that the movie limped along for quite a bit of it, and even though I know the movie was supposed to be ambiguous, I would have liked a little bit more definition of the characters. It seemed there was no clear definition to the love triangle in the movie, no real reason for anyone to be jealous of anyone else, becuase it seemed like no one really gave a drat. I've seen better, I've seen worse. 3.5/5
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2005 08:18
|
|
