Sympathy for Delicious

I saw a screening of this movie at Sundance 2010. I was very impressed with Mark Ruffalo's directorial debut. I told him afterward that it seemed effortless. He laughed and said it was anything but.

Sometimes with first-time directors (though he's had some TV directing experience), there are jarring points that make you realize you're watching a debut. But there were no such moments for me with this movie.

Christopher Thornton, who also wrote the script, was great. He explained after the screening that he developed this with Ruffalo after Thornton complained that there are no good roles for paraplegics.

Though I was told beforehand to expect a dark film, it really has more moments of levity, which Ruffalo said was intentional.

It's a film worth seeing!

at first sigh, a religious movie. out of ordinaries rules of genre. in fact, precise portrait of society. a lot of problems in a honest manner presented. the homeless case, the artistic success, the healing industry, the faith, the miracle, the pain, the love's sense, the need of fame, the good intentions, the God will, each in a special way examined . a film who must see. as good occasion to discover pieces from another works about same problem. for the inspired script and for the good acting. for the questions. for the status of parable of film. for the image about every day reality. for the cold poetry of few scenes. for the silences. more than a good movie, it is an useful one.

This piece of cinema exhibited abeyance to the great maxim "you can't always get what you want." A great cast, a compelling story, and a first time directorial debut from a well-regarded actor seems to create the formula for cinematic magic. Unfortunately after two hours that seemed more like three days in a third world airport this was not the case. I wish there had been one area to praise but this again was not the case. The cast a group of distinguished actors were uniformly without character,off key in delivery, and spouting embarrassing dialog. The storyline is hokey and filled with clichés. To top it off the predictable ending is an over the top contrivance. A gritty opening shot in a area of homeless people winds its way to a thoroughly improbable story by a very unappealing and unlikable character. Everyone else is sleepwalking through this disaster. I have no idea what some of the other reviewers thought they were watching but I know for me it was a poorly crafted film.

Given the promising cast and the fact that this is a film directed by Mark Ruffalo, I was curious about 'Sympathy for Delicious'. Of course, there are many actor-turned-director films that turned out to be not great, like Johnny Depp's 'The Brave' and 'Sympathy for Delicious' disappoints. To start, the story failed to engage me. It tries to combine elements of spirituality and fantasy into a current day world of drugs, rock and roll and poverty but it simply does not work. The title character is not even remotely likable. Now movies with a hateful lead character could only work if there's something about them or their world that manages to draw the viewer in and this is obviously lacking here. Another thing that's missing here is humour. The supporting cast attempts to provide some but that's not enough. Christopher Thornton is passable at best and he's easily overshadowed by his co-stars especially Linney, Bloom, Lewis and Ruffalo. I doubt Thornton himself is too blame since the character itself is so one-dimensional. Laura Linney is there only in several small sequences but she provides awesome comic relief. Juliette Lewis is very good but she seems to get typecast. Ruffalo is terrific as the priest but if he does continue to direct hope he picks a more interesting subject.

...about society, faith, healing industry. great work of a good actor who proofs his director skills, for first time. a film about the other. the appareances, the interests, the fame, the show, the compromises, the gift and its price. at first sigh, one of the most inspired Christian films. in fact, a beautiful pledge for a careful [erspective about life. a curagious film. and, in same measure, an useful one.