Walken plays: John Simcheck, Channel 4 news (aka: Doke) - former newscaster, paranoiac zealot, fourth wall-breaker
Synopsis: What's really going on in this time-twisting, pseudo-philosophical urban crime parable that wants to be 'Tarantino does Run, Lola, Run' so badly it hurts? Your guess is as good as mine. Essentially, the multiple, Vantage Point-style (I won't invite the comparison to the incomparabily superior Rashômon) overlapping storylines all revolve around the theft of the Shroud of Turin (Jesus' burial shroud) from the Vatican, and how the FBI(?) agents pursuing it (Christian Slater & Nicky Whelan) stumble across a bundle of eccentric characters, including the manic pixie dream girl bike messenger obliviously transporting it (Q'orianka Kilcher), a vengeful thug out for blood (Anthony Anderson), and a teen thieving his brother's baby food (Devon Gearhart)... all of whose lives are subtly, positively altered by the presence of Few (Tione Johnson), who comes with her own murky theological connotations. Phew!
It sounds interesting, and Marucci's confident, stylish filmmaking lends some cool soundtrack/cinematography moments, but his script is madder than a sackful of ferrets, and more concerned with sounding hip at all costs (it doesn't) than answering any of the film's logistical questions, let alone much sense of theme or cohesion. It's not an unpleasant watch, and it threatens to raise some interesting, albeit unoriginal questions about fate, spirituality, and so on. Still, Marucci's monolithic dialogue is so thoroughly alienating that it's nigh impossible to connect with any of the characters for more than fleeting moments, making it a lively but overlong (at only 96 minutes...), confusing parable it's hard to find a point to.
Walken's "Doke" is easily the ensemble's most enjoyable inclusion (duhrr), but also its most cryptic (also duhrr). Hanging out with fellow derelict Brown (In Bruges' Jordan Prentice), Walken is garbed like a homeless Silent Bob, spouts almost incomprehensible hepcat dialogue, and exhibits a penchant to narrate the events he's witnessing like a TV newscaster, which leads to a couple of amusing "Video from Doke's head" fantasy flash-forwards, Run, Lola, Run style, of the kind of botched crimes he could get up to with a purloined gun. We later find out the twist that he...um...used to be a TV newscaster, until a mysterious phone call informing him that the theft of the Shroud of Turin would result in Jesus' resurrection by cloning (h'okay...), and his inability to report it led to a spiral of self-destruction resulting in his vagrancy. So: he's basically an exposition dump, then? Essentially. But Walken is game to embrace his character's weird extremes and delusional pathos, and his teary-eyed monologue explaining his fateful call is a bizarrely riveting and affecting as any he's done. He's no weirder than the film surrounding him, but is far more fun, which counts for a lot.
Wacky Walken dialogue: Apart from his rather excellent Christ-cloning monologue, Doke's philosophical rambling leads to some choice Walken bits:
- "Brown, I tell ya - you gotta start listening to what people don't say. It's the best way to stay focused."
- "They're gonna clone the big guy!"
- "Ours is the age of machines that think, and suspicious people who try to"
- "You're an observant little fellow who stopped to have a think. My advice to you: don't forget to start up again."
- "Gangs don't need guns. They're gangs because they already have guns."
DOES HE DANCE: Yes! It's only a brief little arm sway from side to side as he and Brown swagger down the street, but the twinkle in Walken's eye makes it unbelievably worthwhile.
Overall Walken-o-meter: 7/10 cowbells. Walken's weirdness here is more appropriate than usual, so it's hardly his fault that his he melds into the murkiness of the film surrounding him and fails to stand out as much as usual, despite his laundry list of quirky trappings. It's fun, but not as substantial or memorable as many of his other oddballs.
No comments:
Post a Comment