The increasingly debilitating economic disparity in this
country has clearly drawn the attention of our filmmakers. Ramin Bahrani’s “99 Homes” premiered on Monday night to praise for the way it uses the housing
crisis to dramatic effect. Two films about homelessness—Oren Moverman’s “Time
Out of Mind” and “Shelter,” the directorial debut of Paul Bettany—not only seek
to capture the people at the bottom of the societal ladder but offer a great
contrast in storytelling. Moverman’s film is completely free of melodrama,
trying to convey a character study about a man who society has deemed doesn’t
even exist anymore. It is stylistically daring, but relatively free of
traditional plot or melodrama. Bettany’s film is the opposite—heavy with back
story and manipulative storytelling devices. It’s fascinating to see them both
in back-to-back days, and realize neither approach completely works, as both films fall
victim to the delicate balance of drama required to engage an audience or push
them away.
In the superior film of the two, Richard Gere continues to take interesting work in
director-driven projects after the acclaim he received for “Arbitrage,” by
following up that story of a rich man with one of a very poor one, playing
George in Oren Moverman’s “Time Out of Mind.” George has fallen so far out of structured
society that he barely registers. He is first spotted squatting in an apartment
(from which he is kicked out via cameo by Steve Buscemi), and he bears the
physical signs of a man who has led a tough life: scars, ragged clothes,
slumped posture, narrowed eyes, unconfident gait. George moves from shelter to
shelter, trying to secure a bed while being forced into bureaucracy through the
fact that the system he needs to help him doesn’t recognize his existence. He
doesn’t have an SSN because he doesn’t have a birth certificate, and there’s no
proof of address or identity to get one of those. George befriends a man named
Dixon (Ben Vereen) who tries to help and lingers near his estranged daughter
(Jena Malone), drowning the courage needed to speak to her in a bottle.
“Time Out of Mind” is more notably melancholic and
meandering than Moverman’s “The Messenger” or “Rampart.” The writer-director
purposefully avoids melodrama, attempting instead to chronicle a few days in
the life of a man on the street. His most daring choice stylistically is in how
often he shoots George from not just a distance but another setting altogether.
For example, George will be having a conversation on the street and the camera
is in an apartment a few floors above. We can even hear the dialogue of the
people who live there behind the window. It’s a visual motif—through windows,
doors, hallways, the other side of the street, etc. There’s also the CONSTANT
noise of NYC—car engines, horns, people talking, construction equipment, etc.
The thematic underplay is easy to decipher. This is the story of a man in a
strata of society that we ignore. We go about our lives. George’s story could
be happening on any street in NYC if you just looked out the window. The best
quality of “Time Out of Mind” is in how Moverman puts the message right there
in the form.
The attempt to make George’s story a common one is noble but can feel
dramatically unsatisfying. “Time Out of Mind” is often as meandering as its
protagonist, which, again, is an admirable undertaking for a film but also a bit distancing for a viewer. The film too often feels unengaging and
directionless. Gere finds a genuinely moving beat here and there—this is one of
his most subtle performances and, really, reason alone to see the film—but the obvious inclination to avoid melodrama
leaves a film without anything to anchor it. Like the man who so easily drifts
away from life, it disappears in front of your eyes.
“Shelter,” starring
Jennifer Connelly and Anthony Mackie, certainly never disappears. It’s too in
your face to do that. Marking the directorial debut of Connelly’s partner Paul
Bettany, a great actor in his own right, “Shelter” is an emotional passion
project. It’s dedicated to the couple who lived outside the actor’s apartment
building. While it may be emotionally resonant for some viewers, it is earnest
to a fault, pinned down to the ground by too much back story and manipulative
storytelling. Connelly and Mackie are good but the film needed a rewrite that
started with the note—“More subtlety.”
Jennifer Connelly looks skinnier than ever as Hannah, a
junkie street dweller who crosses paths with the protective Tahir (Anthony
Mackie). The two form a bond, and, eventually a relationship. They take up
residence in the home of a rich couple gone for the summer. They work to kick
Hannah’s addiction. They have deep back stories, including a son for Hannah
that she left behind and a violent past for Tahir. Like George, they are often
left behind by a system that has failed our poor people. And the film gets
darker in its final act as one of the pair struggles for survival and one will
do anything to keep them together.
Connelly over-emotes here but Mackie is a strong center, and
I could see people going in for the ultra-earnest approach to the material from
Bettany. I found the film remarkably soap operatic, as false in many of its
beats as “Time Out of Mind” feels genuine. Wouldn’t it be great to find a drama
about our homeless population that can find the balance between the two?
