Homer and Eddie

This is not a film with a script that Konchalovsky wrote--it is by an unknown Patrick Cirillo. (For the uninitiated, Konchalovsky's scripts include the early works of Tarkovsky, his classmate in film school.) There are a few distinct Konchalovsky sequences--the appearance of Jesus-like characters carrying a wooden cross on the empty streets of California viewed twice by the Whoopi Goldberg character of Eddie. This is the best performance of Ms Goldberg that I have seen to date. Two, the original music is by Eduard Artemyev, the composer of Tarkovsky's classic films "Solaris" and "Stalker" and a host of Konchalovsky's own works. The Hungarian maestro Lojas Koltai is the cinematographer--famous for his contribution to the works of the Italian director Tornatore and the Hungarian Istvan Szabo. For cineastes, there is a cameo by Karen Black as a madam of a US brothel. More importantly, the film is a sad tale of how the rich and poor alike in the US, disown their own family members with disabilities. That is a touch of the real Konchalovsky.

OK, first thing: this movie is NOT a comedy, not by a long shot. It has funny parts, but it is not a comedy.

This is the best piece of acting you'll ever see from James Belushi and also one of Whoopi Goldberg's finest, unarguably.

The movie is touching, funny, sad, violent and breathtaking. So for anyone who hasn't seen it, see it!

Let's see: a foul mouthed, violent murderer, thief, escaped mental patient dying from an inoperable brain tumor (Goldberg)is driving a witless, infantile, drooling wanderer who has severe and permanent brain damage (Belushi) home to see his ashamed, abusive father who completely disowned him years earlier. Sounds like a fun road trip picture, doesn't it?

Not even close. This movie was so vile that most theater chains passed on it, and those that didn't yanked it from their screens in less than a week.

It is not funny, even in the context of a black comedy. It is violent, disturbing, foul and completely off the entertainment meter in the negative values. I have yet to see this on any retail or rental shelf, or any cable or TV station, even during the graveyard hell populated by Psychic Fraud Network and Ronco Commercials.

Don't hitch a ride with these two. Your sense of humor may be permanently hijacked.

Whoopi Goldberg-James Belushi road movie isn't very good, isn't well-directed, but it does have something. Wrongly advertised as a wacky comedy, "Homer and Eddie" is actually a surprisingly sensitive and light-on-its-feet drama about friendship. Mentally backward man (Belushi) partners with an escaped mental patient named Eddie (Goldberg) who also has a brain tumor and keeps thinking she sees Jesus going by. Sort of a tragic love story between two unfortunate people that life threw away. Both stars are just fine, but the sloppy editing shows signs of an indecisive captain of the ship, and the blue-collar rock music on the soundtrack is grating. Panned by the critics, I found several scenes between the leads to be moving and funny, and Belushi shows a wonderfully huggable side of himself with a lovely monologue at a funeral; this is his best performance to date. **1/2 from ****

I don't know what all the dissing is for! This is a great film, although I would've picked different music for the soundtrack. Entertaining...funny...heart and soul. What more could you ask for? Whoopi's best performance next to The Color Purple...