Friday, May 31, 2013

A GLIMPSE INSIDE THE MIND OF CHARLES SWAN III: HIS MIND IS EMPTY

I really can not say how much I couldn't stand this movie. I'm sorry but I have grown weary of writers and directors who think that they can paint themselves as artists by making an incoherent movie with characters no one cares about that flows free form from one scene to the next in an attempt to be different. You're not different you're just bad.

The basic premise here is Charles Swan III (portrayed by Charlie Sheen copying his performances from TWO AND A HALF MEN and ANGER MANAGEMENT) stars as a man in love with a woman who leaves him when she discovers he has a drawer filled with Polaroid pictures of past conquests. Why he feels the need to keep these around in such an open area who knows. Distraught at her leaving he attempts to drive after her, wrecks his car and ends up in the hospital.

From here the movie goes every which way it can. It moves backward and forward in time, it moves into the surreal world of Charles's mind, it bring in characters just made for cameos and it goes nowhere fast. Some reviews of this film have called it genius and others have called it one of the worst films ever made. I tend to fall in the latter group.

I found it difficult just to get through a large portion of this film let alone from beginning to end. I'll be the first to admit I never got there. Something inside of me said that there were better things in this world I could be doing than watching this piece of manure posing as art. Movies like this do little but make me angry when I read about other films that have lingered on shelves for years that sounded good but never got made. Then I realize that someone gave the people behind this movie money to make it and I think why this and not that?

The film was written/directed by Roman Coppola who co-wrote THE DARJEELING LIMITED and MOONRISE KINGDOM with director Wes Anderson. I've never been a huge fan of Anderson for many of the reasons this film didn't work, but at least I've been entertained by them in one way or another. This movie feels like it was made by a fanboy of Anderson's who wanted to show he could make just as quirky a film. Instead it falls flat on its face offering a boring film that makes no sense and is difficult to watch let alone enjoy.

Don't let the cover fool you. Names like Charlie Sheen, Bill Murray, Patricia Arquette and Jason Schwartzman may be listed in the credits but I could only believe they did this movie as a favor to Coppola. They would have done him a bigger favor by telling him that yes indeed; the king wasn't wearing any clothes.

Click here to order.

No comments:

Post a Comment