The movie pays lip service to Pollock the student of Wassily Kandinsky and El Greco, but it doesn't exactly bring his breakthroughs to dramatic life. Their scenes together are the heart of the film, and they're certainly vivid. But there should be more humor in the union of this pale, spooked WASP and this dark, nervy Jew who knits and watches over him, extolling his genius, luring him into the country, monitoring his drinking, and rationing his social life. As Krasner, Marcia Gay Harden is so focused that she's frightening. She smokes, glares out from behind those thick black glasses, and seems always poised to snatch some treat from Pollock's quivering fingers and steer him back into his workshop.
Paint is paint.
Surface is surface. That's all it should be. The script gives you no clue. In one scene, she gives him amphetamines to help him produce, but this near aside has no follow-through. Amphetamine withdrawal would explain the weight gain, the violent tantrums, maybe even the state of near-narcolepsy in which he ended his life.