Here's a top quality first film that contains a large dose of quirky and memorable characters, plus all the attendant qualities of lighting, sound, camera work, you name it. And the first two acts of the film are very enjoyable, and primed to establish a confrontation between father and son, and a great awakening for the hero, off drugs and learning to live life with feeling.
Where this film greatly stumbles is the final act, with hardly any confrontation between father and son. The father's role is much too brief. The superb acting is wasted. The father and son meet momentarily at the end and leave us wanting so much more.
But the absolute weakness of this film is the treatment of the love between the two main characters. You couldn't get more Hollywood if you tried. Come on now, coming back off the plane? Crying in the phone booth? It is a real stinker of an ending, I'm sorry to say, and it therefore ruins the whole movie.
Better ending, next time, please?
Where this film greatly stumbles is the final act, with hardly any confrontation between father and son. The father's role is much too brief. The superb acting is wasted. The father and son meet momentarily at the end and leave us wanting so much more.
But the absolute weakness of this film is the treatment of the love between the two main characters. You couldn't get more Hollywood if you tried. Come on now, coming back off the plane? Crying in the phone booth? It is a real stinker of an ending, I'm sorry to say, and it therefore ruins the whole movie.
Better ending, next time, please?