Produced by Jonathan Demme and based on the novel PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN DROWNING, SIX WAYS TO Sunday (6WtS) follows the adventures of Harold "Harry" Odum (Norman Reedus), a young man pinned so tightly under his mother's thumb he can barely move. On Harry's road of, er, self-discovery, he evolves (for lack of a better term) from mama's boy to hit man for the local Jewish mob. Even more mind-boggling, his smothering mom is played by an eerily effective Deborah Harry! (Deborah Harry Odum? :-) Although she gets to sing in flashbacks (and Blondie's "Sunday Girl" is used to nice effect in a diner scene. In fact, music is used well in this film overall, especially The Feminine Complex's charmingly Petula Clarkesque "Love Love Love"), for the most part Harry is startlingly different from her Blondie front-woman persona, both physically and personality-wise. Directed by Adam Bernstein, who's gone on to excellent work on RESCUE ME and other edgy TV series, 6WtS boasts a cast as talented as it is eclectic. Norman Reedus manages to be boyish and intense at the same time, as well as looking like the positive result of an eccentric geneticist's attempt to create a hybrid of Ewan McGregor, Leonardo DiCaprio, and a young Gary Sinise. There are also memorable turns by Isaac Hayes as a cop (listen for his rendition of "What A Friend We Have in Mother" during the opening scenes), Jerry Adler (best known in our household as Woody Allen and Diane Keaton's mysterious neighbor Mr. House in MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY) as the Jewish mob's equivalent of the capo di tutti capi, and Elina Löwensohn (NADJA, SCHINDLER'S LIST) as the girl Harry loves, reminding me of a sort of wistful, downtrodden Audrey Hepburn. For my money, the most entertaining scenes belong to Adrien Brody, and not just because I'm a fan of his. Brody channels his inner Ali G as Harry's childhood friend Arnie Finklestein, an inept gangsta wannabe who tries to look and act like a homeboy with hilarious results -- but nobody's laughing when he chickens out and flees the scene during one of Harry's hits... 6WtS isn't for all tastes, but if you like your crime comedies weird, dark and twisted, it's at least worth a rental.
