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Review:
 In
the far north of Manhattan Island is a wilderness called Inwood
park. Here is the last truly wild place in all of New York City.
Within are caves that were used by the Indians as shelter back
before the Dutch bought the place and it is in one of these caves
that a lunatic former piano player named Romulus Ledbetter(Samuel L.
Jackson) lives.
Rom imagines vast conspiracies where evil forces work to drive
him even more insane than he already is. He rages at the leader of
these imagined forces, a phantom named Stuyvesant day and night, and
thanks to the magic of special effects we can see many of his
hallucinations. but one day he sees something that is no
hallucination.....
A day before, a kid named Scotty goes up to him and asks some
questions, some help, but there he is now frozen to death on the
branches of a tree......has Stuyvesant gone to far this time?
It turns out that Scotty had been the assistant to an evil artist
named David Leppenraub(Colm Feore), and with or without the help of
his estranged policewoman daughter Lulu(Aunjanue Ellis), Rom
resolved to bring Leppenraub to justice, even if it means having to
go undercover as a sane person.
With nothing but his native intelligence, the hallucination of
his wife Sheila(Tamara Tunie) and the seraphim in his head for help,
he manages to get new clothes from a kindly lawyer(Anthony Michael
Hall), and a ride from a former acquaintance. He charms Leppenraub's
friends and relations(Ann Magnuson), that is until his true identity
is discovered....
Writer George Dawes Green and director Kasi Lemmons have created
a delightful little mystery where nothing is what it really seems
and gives Sam Jackson a chance to shine like he hasn't in years. The
other players are nearly as good, but it's Jackson's movie and he
makes the most of it. It's really riveting. Lots of fun and worth
the money.
Eric Lurio |
