From the photo on the poster showing a rather stunned
Sean Penn ‘dragged up’ as a lookalike of The Cure’s Robert Smith you sense
that there is another superlative
performance in store in a potentially fascinating new movie. But nothing is ever what it first seems, and
the masterful Penn playing Cheyenne a bored and depressed retired rock star in
a perpetual catatonic state is let down with a rather inane story that is less
about fading ex musicians that I expected, but more about hunting ex Nazi war
criminals. And the fact that he had a
very inadequate supporting cast (except for Frances McDormand, Judd Hirsch and old Harry Dean Stanton of
course) who seemed straight out of drama school didn't help at all.
This rather odd and quirky wee movie is lifted with
some stunning cinematography when Cheyenne leaves Dublin and goes on his
travels, and it settles down to being a road movie. There are also a few touches of some
brilliant low black humor from Cheyenne as he trails the streets lugging his
ever present shopping trolley behind, and also when he is being thrashed playing hardball by his dope-smoking wife Jane played by Frances McDormand in her usual hilarious way. Towards the second part of the
movie, which drags somewhat intolerably, you realize that if you forget the plot
(and I soon did) that this is essentially a character study of Cheyenne
himself. But even when giving a rather insightful monologue, Penn’s performance
is very much one-note, and that does pale on even the most ardent fan by the time
the final credits are rolling.
Written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino (‘Il Divo’)
this hotchpotch of a movie was made with Irish, French and Italian
producers/finance and has been circulating Europe this year (its already out on
DVD in the UK where I caught it. It’s
scheduled for a US Release in November 2012.
Definitely disappointing, but can you really pass up
the chance of seeing Penn dressed up like this, even in a lame movie?
P.S. David Bryne proves he is no actor, but the music he wrote for the film is really quite wonderful.
★★★★★★
