Product: Jesus' Son [VHS]
Rating: 2.0
could have been a mesmerizing story
I wanted to watch this movie strictly on the basis of Billy Crudup's starring role. I will never understand why this man did not become a major star. He is gorgeous, extremely versatile, can be endearing in a way few actors can, is able to convey both joy and pain flawlessly. He simply glows on screen with an unmatched elemental charisma. He immediately pulled me into this story which I believed would be a mesmerizing, realistic character study of a man who hits bottom and rises slowly but surely up into a decent life. I thought we would get a front row seat to his fascinating evolution.Instead the movie effects a kind of quirky, jerky ambiance which seems to strive to shock more than tell a story. We never really understand who the protagonist is, why he is the way he is, why he does what he does. We never see him reach the end of his rope, never get to witness the key to his transformation. The supporting characters are really caricatures; there is a lot of nonsense squeezed in between the grim scenes of drugs, violence and an abortion.Too much is confusing and unexplained--who is the man for instance who enters the apartment while Denis Leary is dying of a drug overdose? Why does he enter and leave so quickly? What happened to the big man at the beginning of the film who runs into the signpost? What were the circumstances revolving around the man who gets shot? What happened to the protagonist's green volkswagen, how do the lead characters reconcile after she throws him out and steals a car? How does his rescuing of the baby after the car crash impact on him, why don't we get to see some interaction between him and the survivors?We never get to see him decide to enter rehab or how he gets to work at the nursing home. We never find out what, if anything, will really develop between the protagonist and Holly Hunter's character. What was going on between the Amish (Mennonite?) man and his wife? His and Holly's conversation at the diner where she talks about a dead string of husbands and lovers just seems foolish, contrived, far-fetched. How much more meaning ful if they had had a conversation about each other, asking questions, revealing bits of their souls. The wholeportrayal of the emergency room and the nursing home were like bad sitcom scenes, tooridiculous to take seriously.I DO understand that the movie was SUPPOSED to be strange, off-beat, surreal but that's not what I wanted. I wanted a straight-shooting, realistic, enthralling, story of a man who reaches the end of his rope and poignantly, thoughtfully,courageously finds a way to hold on.