the caveman 's valentine starring samuel
l .
jackson , ann magnuson , aunjanue ellis , tamara tunie screenplay by george
dawes green , based on his novel directed by kasi lemmons
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* * a strange mixture of _ shine _ ,
_ basquiat _ ,
_ angel heart _ , and grant morrison & dave mckean 's graphic novel " arkham asylum "
, _ the caveman 's valentine _ is a feverish tale of a homeless madman - cum - detective who , on the morning of february 14th , discovers a " valentine " just outside his new york cave : one of ella fitzgerald 's strange fruit , stuck in the crotch of a tree -- a young male model murdered and frozen to a branch .
believing at first that his imagined nemesis stuyvesant , shooting evil rays into his mind from atop the chrysler building , is responsible for the murder , romulus ( samuel l .
jackson ) is put on the trail of an avant - garde photographer in the mapplethorpe mould , david leppenraub ( colm feore ) .
his minor sleuthing interrupted by the occasional delusional fit and bouts with an ecstasy of creation ( romulus was a brilliant julliard - trained pianist prior to his psychosis ) , romulus uncovers clues and harasses suspects on his way to convincing his police - woman daughter ( aunjanue ellis ) that even though he 's a nut , that does n't mean that he ca n't solve a high - profile society murder .
every moment an exhausting workshop of ideas , and every character the same ,
_
the caveman 's valentine _ is a concept so " high concept " that it suddenly became clear to me that the film fits into the comic book genre of entertainment , with romulus 's " caveman " a slightly more mundane version of todd mcfarlane 's urban noir hero , spawn .
with a long - vanished wife ( tamara tunie ) acting as a spiritual guide , the occasional social caste commentary , the secret base in a cave , a divergent genius personality with a network of informants and supporters , and a wickedly colourful arch - enemy , the film piles on the lurid comic book details and dizzying slapdash colours to such a lavish extent that i was vaguely surprised that the blue police cars were n't inscribed with " gotham pd .
" that being said , _ the caveman 's valentine _ can only really succeed as a heroic fantasy , a frank miller graphic novel that has the audacity to portray the blood staining a field of virgin snow expanding to form the shape of a heart .
the difficulties with the film spring from the misunderstanding that it somehow adheres to the conventions of a thriller or a police procedural when , in fact , _ the caveman 's valentine _ is a superhero fable that takes on the cause of the homeless ( again like mcfarlane 's spawn ) while attacking the entrenched ruling classes in government and the arts .
it is no small detail that our hero , romulus , is not only named for a member of the ruling class who lived his life ( in legend ) without knowledge of his royal birth , but also that our romulus has turned his back on the comforts of the literati in favour of a mystical existence living in a cave in a park .
in the romulus mythology , signs of romulus ' royal blood is brought by twelve vultures , while in the film , the call to action for our hero comes in the form of not the carrion birds , but of the carrion itself .
whether or not romulus of _
the caveman 's valentine _ will found a nation , or , in the case of novelist george dawes green , upon whose novel his own screenplay is based , a franchise , the fact remains that _ the caveman 's valentine _ is easily the most misunderstood film of 2001 thus far .
it , along with m .
night shyamalan 's _ unbreakable _ , is a mature cinematic extrapolation of the graphic novel format which has , since miller 's seminal " the dark knight returns " , redefined the comic medium as one suitable for mature ruminations on psychologically sticky topics .
readers of sam keith 's brilliant " the maxx " comic series ( or of mtv 's short - lived animated adaptation of the same ) are already familiar with the idea of a homeless man placed in the position of knight errant and king of his own twisted demesne .
the failure of both " the maxx " tv show and of _ the caveman 's valentine _ ( not forgetting the initial backlash against _ unbreakable _ ) suggests that the public may not be ready for america 's surprising contributions to dark fantasy .
luxuriantly lit , brashly saturated , and comic - panel framed with a virtuoso grace by cinematographer
amy
vincent
( _ death in venice , ca _ ) , while inhabiting robin standefer 's ( _ practical magic _ ) mesmerizing sets ,
_
the caveman 's valentine _ is an unremittingly gorgeous film .
kasi lemmons , following up her brilliant 1997 debut , _ eve 's bayou _ , which played on similar themes of manufactured realities and mysticism , fulfills much of her immense promise with a tale of seraphs and lost boys , artists and suffering .
_ the caveman 's valentine _ is an elegant and piquant expression of hope for justice in a tilted landscape .
clearly not for every taste , when approached with the correct paradigm , it is one of the most stunning and intensely fascinating films of the year : a redefinition of the hero archetype for a post - modern audience with urine - stained wool trench coats in place of blue tights and red capes .
_ the caveman 's valentine _ is a fine and a courageous film , crazy enough to suggest that the delirious yammering of an idiot savant is the best and truest paladin of order in the chaos of eliot 's rat 's alley wasteland .
a mature cinematic extrapolation a fine and a courageous film an unremittingly gorgeous film every moment an exhausting workshop of ideas , and every character the same an elegant and piquant expression one of the most stunning and intensely fascinating films mesmerizing sets fulfills much of her immense promise