Mister Lonely

Rating NR Formats DVD Genre drama Starring Diego Luna, Samantha Morton, Denis Lavant, James Fox, Werner Herzog, Leos Carax Directed by Harmony Korine Publisher IFC

Nothing is more beautiful (to me) in the world than those scenes in movies that are so visually stunning that your breath is literally wrestled from your lungs. Mister Lonely has plenty of scenes like that. The cinematography is damn close to flawless. Harmony Korine has managed to create what is quite possibly one of the most visually beautiful movies that has been thrown out in quite some time. Simple things – like walking down a crowded street in France – become enchantingly beautiful. Enchantingly beautiful things – like walking a pony through a mossy forest where one half expects fairies to come flying by – ascend to some higher level of existence. I wanted to fall in love with the film for it’s visual prowess.

BUT nothing is more repulsively disturbing (to me) in the world than those movies that get so lost within themselves and their physique that the beauty becomes something like visions in hell. One after another they show up. But do they make sense? What’s the point of having a shot of a Michael Jackson impersonator riding a small motorcycle in slow motion for over two minutes? The point of numerous extended shots of characters doing things that have nothing in common with the storyline? Some people call it “deep art.” I call it mindless self-indulgence.

The story revolves around a Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna – very convincing as a completely awkward person) who performs as…Michael Jackson…in Paris. He doesn’t speak French. He doesn’t seem to have much of an identity beyond his Michael Jackson-ness. He wakes up, he impersonates, he falls asleep. Then he meets Marilyn Monroe (Samantha Morton) – an impersonator, obviously – who convinces him to travel to her humble abode – a castle where impersonators live. Let me give you the run down: her husband (an abusive Charlie Chaplin), the Pope, Abe Lincoln, Sammy Davis., Jr., the Queen, Little Red Riding Hood, James Dean, Madonna, Shirley Temple, The Three Stooges, etc. Their goal is to live in an impersonator’s utopia. How they can afford such a place with no stable income remains a question at the film’s closing, but I suppose it’s not entirely important if we suspend our belief for the amount of time necessary to accept the fact that this group got together in the first place. But I digress…the goal is to create a utopia, and history (cinematic, as well as factual) shows that doing anything with the goal of perfection tends to fall apart in the end…communism…Jonestown…Heavens Gate…Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor…

Like I said, the film is visually stunning. Just…when it comes to keeping you interested, it’s too busy trying to be eye candy. Even in the closing scene of the movie, I was fascinated with the filming, but I found myself wondering, “Well…what the hell just happened?” On a side note, a movie in which flying nuns and impersonators appear together, but never on screen at the same time, is probably never going to be a good movie.