Hey folks, Harry here with that swinging hunk of love, Nordling... Chiming in from distant exotic Houston! The concrete swamp filled with plane-sized mosquitoes and buzzing ounces of flying lead... Nordling is like a tender viscious swamp monkey in a red fez, determined to pounce and find the latest and greatest film to come up in that swamp. But today he's just gotten plum silly. HOW I BECAME A TREE? I understand that I have roots here in Austin, but it is my beleaf that I am knot going to bark at every pun that comes along. Well, I better branch this thing over to Nordling, here you go....
Hey, Nordling here. Looks like I got some competition at the fest this
year, so I thought I'd beat him to the punch with this review. :) Seeing
BRIAR PATCH and HOTEL tonight, but just wanted to post this review of a
really good film I saw last night.
HOW HARRY BECAME A TREE
"A man is defined by his enemies," says Harry Maloney (Colm Meaney) to his son Gus (Cillian Murphy), when he explains why he has chosen George Flaherty (Adrian Dunbar), the richest man in Skillet, Ireland, 1924, to be his own personal enemy. "What's he done to ya?" asks Gus. "Nothing," says Harry. "He's clever that way."
HOW HARRY BECAME A TREE, based on a Japanese folk tale, is a dark film, often funny, sometimes quite moving, about a man who has suffered great loss and decides to take it out on the rest of the world. Harry lost his other son Pat to the war, and his wife Annie died soon after. Gus is a little addle-minded, and is clearly not his father's favored son, of which he constantly reminds him, through words and gestures. When George, who is also the town matchmaker, brings a woman to town to set up for Gus, Harry at first scoffs at the gesture. But through Eileen (Kerry Condon) Harry begins to conceive a way to get at George, and exact his revenge for a wrong that George had nothing to do with.
Colm Meaney is simply awesome in this film. Filled with rage at his losses in life, and with no outlet for his anger, he methodically sets out to destroy George's life. He has always turned in fine performances in his films, and this is no exception. The title refers to a dream Harry has, in which he imagines himself a tree, the shadow of his branches covering over all he surveys. But his life is a lonely life, and his bitterness consumes his reason. Vegas, my chat room partner in crime, suggested that this film would be a perfect double feature with THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, and I agree. However, while Gene Hackman's Royal schemes to bring his family together, Harry tries to rip another man apart.
Adrian Dunbar plays a man who although not altogether guiltless, wonders at Harry's vendetta. His performance seems simpler, but is actually quite complex, as George has a few schemes of his own. The last shot of his character is brilliant.
Director Goran Paskaljevik makes use of the bleak landscape to show a man alone in his grief. This Serbian director has made many Yugoslavian feature films before leaving his country in 1994, not returning until recently. I hope to see more from this director. A terrific movie.
The Belle of the Ball,
Nordling
