Product: Prince of Central Park (1999)
Rating: 2.0
Brave enough to take on the issue of self-confidence
Prince of Central Park (2000) has the participation of HarveyKeitel, albeit in a secondary or terciary role that revolvesaround a youth, old enough for grade school, raised in a fosterhome, spending most of his time on the streets, where he has theadvantage of quickly learning the ways of the world, but also ofjeopardizing an ambitious future, surrounded by a litany ofstruggling,down-trodden individuals, the first of which, is hisguardian, a woman whose parenting activity is a revenuegenerator, coupled with a sideline of an escort service, viewersrealize.The story bravely takes on two several prejudices, the firstbeing that onebeing born into wealth (or conversely, born intopoverty) is a guarantee of one's future , of being preordained andguaranteed, and secondly, that a lack of family, or having beenabandoned by one's parents (due to illness or otherwise) willresult in aninsecurity. a lack of pride, of generating a gap inself-confidence to the point of rendering impossible lateraccomplishments. It tries to prove points as not being the case.The youth, played skillfully by Frank Nasso, is depicted asstruggling with a lack of financial support and a lack of familythat is threatening his true potential.Next, Kathleen Turner plays an aging mother, transformed by theonset of Alzheimer's or dementia, accelerated by her son'spremature demise, from an accident.Coincidentally, a former childhood friend of his, a homeless man( the so-called the "Guardian Keeper of Central Park), lives inthe outdoors ( Harvey Keitel's character ) and makes contact withthe youth, offering wisdom and the lessons learned from age andexperience to show him the right path to his rightful future.This movie has some hard lessons, and shows the harsh reality thatsome viewers may want to avoid, but that, neverless, exist inthis world we live in, which is not surprising, as that is thetrademark of Harvey Keitel's movies: showing things as they trulyare.This work is remarkable for the simple reason that it is braveenough to take on subjects that Hollywood fears from being tooheavy.