Film Review

09 January 2009 03:53 BST

Mister Lonely

Directed by Harmony Korine, out March 14th, starring Diego Luna, Samantha Morton, Denis Lavant, James Fox, Anita Pallenberg, running time 112 mins.

In a nutshell…

Pretentious guff masquerading as art

What's it all about?

A young - and lonely, as the title would suggest - Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) struggles to cope with his own confused identity in Paris and when a fellow lookalike - Marilyn Monroe (Samantha Morton) - invites him to live in a like-minded community, he jumps at the chance to be among souls as conflicted as his own. Journeying to a remote Scottish commune, he finds himself among a self-governing, undeniably-fractured society populated by lookalikes ranging from Charlie Chaplin (Dennis Lavant), the Queen (Anita Pallenberg) and Little Red Riding Hood (Rachel Korine).

Meanwhile, a German missionary (Werner Herzog) and some seemingly immortal nuns pop up intermittently in South America.

Who's in it?

Harmony Korine made his name when he penned the eye-opening Kids in 1995, before his directing jobs on 1997's Gummo and 1999's Julien Donkey-Boy showed the emergence of an innovative, unconventional voice.

Diego Luna shot to fame after his turn in Y Tu Mama Tambien and continued to work in Latin American cinema while forging an impressive reputation in English-language film with parts in Open Range, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights and Criminal.

Oscar-nominated Samantha Morton built a steady career in the likes of Soldier, Soldier, Band of Gold and Jane Eyre before a role in Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown saw her star rise, leading to roles in Minority Report, In America, Enduring Love and a heartbreaking role as Ian Curtis' widow in Control.

As an example…

"I'll introduce you to a stripper with a great, beautiful mind." - Renard

"You know Charlie, sometimes when I look at you, you seem more like Adolf Hitler than Charlie Chaplin." - Marilyn

Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars

Awards success is out of the question, with neither the plot, cinematography nor the direction particularly impressing the viewer, though the leads do their best with limited material. Korine's divisive pedigree and his clear effort to favour thought provoking imagery over plot means a favourable critical reception would have been expected, at least from their more highbrow sections of the film press. Unfortunately, it's too disjointed, overblown and aimless to deserve any praise.

What the others say

"Mister Lonely gets by for a while on the quirkiness of its premise, the commitment of its performers (especially Luna and Morton) and Korine's enjoyably eccentric casting instincts... But Korine runs out of story ideas long before [the picture] reaches the end of its padded, nearly two-hour running time." - Scott Foundas, Variety

"It's an endearing enough idea but the film's dark side undermines the charming set-up." - Anna Smith, Empire

So is it any good?

On paper, it sounds like an intriguing concept and with Korine having courted controversy at a young age with his foul-mouthed script for Larry Clark's shocking Kids and a starry cast on board, there's no reason why this couldn't have worked.

It begins well enough, using the original version Bobby Vinton's Mr Lonely - rather than the Akon cover - over a slow-motion shot of Michael mini-biking, clad in the classic Jacko outfit of red jacket, mask, white socks, monkey. Even the early scenes of Michael feeling disconnected in Paris and his life-changing meeting with Marilyn roll by with a quirky charm.

Scenes at the commune - "a place where everyone is famous and no-one ages" - soon begin to grate however, with a nagging sense that the inconsequential events are probably supposed to suggest something profound while the random vignettes of the South American do little more than irritate through their inherent pointlessness.

A scene in which leading members of the commune repeat the phrase "the pope stinks" drew exasperated sighs from attendees of the press screening, so blatant was its attempt to shock for the sake of shocking, while the consistent swearing from the characters clad in the guise of the famous is unnecessary and tiresome.

Throughout, the piece plays like experimental theatre of the very worst kind and when the extremely dark climax shuffles in, exasperation at having sat through close to two hours of a film with no hint of plot, explodes into anger.

While Korine presumably intended to say something pretentious about the futility of life all he does is snatch away the redemptive, happy ending that we as an audience had sat through this depressing experience in anticipation of.

3/10

Lewis Bazley

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