September 13, 2008: Adam Resurrected
I’m a Paul Schrader fan. I love that whole 1970s Hollywood era, when the new generation of film-school auteurs (Scorsese, Coppola, Spielberg, etc) were given free rein for a while, and ultimately became the power players of the Hollywood of today. Paul Schrader made his name writing screenplays for Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull), but wrote and directed a handful of his own films along the way, including Blue Collar, which I consider to be one of the lost 1970s gems starring Richard Pryor, Yaphet Kotto and Harvey Keitel.
Here in 2008, we have Schrader directing a film he did not write – Adam Resurrected. It’s about a post-WW2 German clown/entertainer who seems to have become mentally ill. He goes to spend some time at an asylum with which he is familiar, and as he turns his attention to helping a young boy struggling with reality, it seems that Adam may have found the way back from his troubles as well. It’s an interesting idea, and some elements of the execution are brilliant. But this is a seriously flawed film and it’s difficult to recommend it.
A friend of mind had pointed out that Jeff Goldblum’s attempt at a German accent was very weak, and that it distracted significantly from the film. I didn’t find it to be quite as jarring, more along the lines of Kevin Costner in JFK where his southern accent is OK except when he’s yelling or otherwise emoting in any way.
The movie is also kind of dull overall, and certainly overlong. Some viewers may enjoy this deliberate pace, but I found it to detract seriously from the whole. I’d still happily go to see anything to which Paul Schrader attaches his name, but with the knowledge that it can be a crap shoot.
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