This is Steve Buscemi's second film as a director and he shows that he has definitely got some film sense. Buscemi's has successfully avoided the "sophomore curse", but I don't really see the point of this film. This story about Jim an alienated young man played by Casey Affleck coming back home to Indianna all depressed is a common enough story, but there really has to be something unique about the telling of this tale for it to stand out. But there is nothing.
Perhaps that is the point. But what is the point about not making a point? Although I don't know this for sure, I would not be surprised to find out that this is a first screenplay and that the writer is a young man.
Still, the people in the film are generally good, Seymour Cassell as Jim's domineering dad and Kevin Corrigan as his stupid brother have all worked with Steve Buscemi as co-actors and Buscemi does get good performances from them, which is a major thing for a director to do, but to what end?
Overall, the story is not particularly original as a movie story although when these kinds of things happen to an individual in real life, it can seem like no one else has ever experienced anything like it before. Sort of like a woman getting and surviving breast cancer. It is a life-changing event for the individual, but that doesn't automatically make it an interesting story for anyone else.
There are tons of stories about people leaving their families and going off to the city only to discover that survival is harder than they think, so for this one to be noticeable, there has to be some kind of unusual hook. But there isn't.
Casey Affleck's character claims to be a writer, but I never believed that for a second. Affleck's character is not particularly verbose or poetic nor is he especially observant. He seems to just be a dull fellow, accepting the vicissitudes of this lack luster life he's been given.
This is part of the problem with the film; I never got a sense of the burning desire he must have felt once upon a time. The kind of desire that compelled him to strike out on his own that made him leave the comforts of home for the unknown in New York. Granted, I understand that he's been beaten down now and has returned with his tail between his legs, but I never even got a sense of what kind of writer he wanted to be. Was his interest in poetry? Was it journalism? Has he been nursing a screenplay for years? Did he fancy himself the next Kerouac? We never really find out.
Granted, he shows us photographs of various famous novelists and he seems particularly interested in the fact that most of them committed suicide either slowly by drinking themselves to death or quickly like Hemingway who shot himself with a shotgun. I have met writers who have been successful and writers who have been failures and he didn't seem like any of them at all.
Still, Casey Affleck is enjoyable; there is something about him I just like. His brother Ben has more charisma and presence, but Casey's sly smile and wit are vastly preferable to me. Watch Casey Affleck hold his own in Gerry along side Matt Damon if you don't believe me.
There are some throwaway bits that I would have liked to explore more, like when Mary Kay Place as Jim's mother ends up in jail and makes friends with all the nice ladies in County Jail, her natural perkiness is wonderful to behold. Also, when she comes home from jail on bail and sarcastically states that her husband must not have realized that bail was an option, we got a big sense of familial dynamics that said volumes about this family, but the scene is just let go as a joke. It needed to be explored more, although I don't have a clue how I would have done that.
Still, although most of the characters are boring twits, I was not bored watching them and that says a lot.
Perhaps that is the point. But what is the point about not making a point? Although I don't know this for sure, I would not be surprised to find out that this is a first screenplay and that the writer is a young man.
Still, the people in the film are generally good, Seymour Cassell as Jim's domineering dad and Kevin Corrigan as his stupid brother have all worked with Steve Buscemi as co-actors and Buscemi does get good performances from them, which is a major thing for a director to do, but to what end?
Overall, the story is not particularly original as a movie story although when these kinds of things happen to an individual in real life, it can seem like no one else has ever experienced anything like it before. Sort of like a woman getting and surviving breast cancer. It is a life-changing event for the individual, but that doesn't automatically make it an interesting story for anyone else.
There are tons of stories about people leaving their families and going off to the city only to discover that survival is harder than they think, so for this one to be noticeable, there has to be some kind of unusual hook. But there isn't.
Casey Affleck's character claims to be a writer, but I never believed that for a second. Affleck's character is not particularly verbose or poetic nor is he especially observant. He seems to just be a dull fellow, accepting the vicissitudes of this lack luster life he's been given.
This is part of the problem with the film; I never got a sense of the burning desire he must have felt once upon a time. The kind of desire that compelled him to strike out on his own that made him leave the comforts of home for the unknown in New York. Granted, I understand that he's been beaten down now and has returned with his tail between his legs, but I never even got a sense of what kind of writer he wanted to be. Was his interest in poetry? Was it journalism? Has he been nursing a screenplay for years? Did he fancy himself the next Kerouac? We never really find out.
Granted, he shows us photographs of various famous novelists and he seems particularly interested in the fact that most of them committed suicide either slowly by drinking themselves to death or quickly like Hemingway who shot himself with a shotgun. I have met writers who have been successful and writers who have been failures and he didn't seem like any of them at all.
Still, Casey Affleck is enjoyable; there is something about him I just like. His brother Ben has more charisma and presence, but Casey's sly smile and wit are vastly preferable to me. Watch Casey Affleck hold his own in Gerry along side Matt Damon if you don't believe me.
There are some throwaway bits that I would have liked to explore more, like when Mary Kay Place as Jim's mother ends up in jail and makes friends with all the nice ladies in County Jail, her natural perkiness is wonderful to behold. Also, when she comes home from jail on bail and sarcastically states that her husband must not have realized that bail was an option, we got a big sense of familial dynamics that said volumes about this family, but the scene is just let go as a joke. It needed to be explored more, although I don't have a clue how I would have done that.
Still, although most of the characters are boring twits, I was not bored watching them and that says a lot.