THE CAVEMAN'S VALENTINE -----------------------
Romulus Ledbetter (Samuel L. Jackson) is a homeless man who lives in a cave in Central Park. The former Julliard-trained pianist/composer's descent into madness cost him his home, wife and (now adult) child. Now he spends his days trying to thwart his nemesis, Cornelius Gould Stuyvesant, whom he believes tracks him from atop the Chrysler Building. When Romulus finds a frozen body in the tree outside his cave, he summons his police officer daughter and tries to convince her superior that the victim was murdered by Stuyvesant in "The Caveman's Valentine."
Adapted from his own Edgar winning novel by George Dawes Green, "The Caveman's Valentine" is a most unusual murder mystery. Because the audience receives its point of view from Romulus, the perspective is always off kilter. We see Romulus' delusions, such as his estranged wife (Tamara Tunie) acting as a sounding board, which other characters in the film do not see.
Romulus has seen a message for help on a large ad for the work of David Leppenraub (Colm Feore, "Titus"), a Mapplethorpe-like photographer who has some nasty rumors circulating involving torture, drugs and death. As the victim was Leppenraub's last model, Rommulus switches his suspicions from Stuyvesant to Leppenraub, arranging to reenter society to get close to the man.
Director Kasi Lemmons ("Eve's Bayou") was smart to choose to work once again with Jackson, as his acting is the most compelling aspect of the film. He lumbers about like a Rastafarian bear in Central Park. Ledbetter is fearless except when he perceives Stuyvesant's rays eminating from the Chrysler, confident in his convictions except when he attempts to pass himself off as the man he used to be.
Anthony Michael Hall ("Sixteen Candles") is the New York financier who supplies Romulus with the trappings of his former life in exchange for party tricks. Ann Magnuson ("Love and Sex") is Moira, Leppenraub's spiritted but dependent sister who takes Romulus as a lover while he's investigating her brother. Feore gives his character an appropriately enigmatic threatening quality.
While the actors, music, locations and art direction all feel right, the story is too muddled to make the film a total success. We're never given enough backstory on Romulus' family to understand his wife and daughter's extremely negative reactions. The film's conclusion wraps everything up too hurriedly, with the protagonist suddenly dispensing numerous facts which the audience hasn't been privy to. The whole Stuyvesant concept never really goes anywhere.
While Lemmon's film is uneven, it's still a unique piece of work by an inventive filmmaker willing to take risks. That coupled with Jackson's masterful lead performance make "The Caveman's Valentine" more worthwhile than most of the Hollywood mainstream product in theaters now.
B
For more Reeling reviews visit www.reelingreviews.com
laura@reelingreviews.com robin@reelingreviews.com
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews