Uomini semplici

What would Hal Hartley's movies be without the eccentric characters? Here is the ex-baseball player hiding in a boat quoting Proudhon to a religiously following Romanian epilectic girl less than half his age that definitely has her own way of dancing to Sonic Youth. Referencing here and there, many lost on me I guess, but the way everything is downplayed makes it so funny at times.

Hal Hartly is so good in casting. I think I liked every actor and actress he has chosen. Here, Elina Lövensohn shines, Karen Sillas is so natural and Robert John Burke is highly dramatic, like he was as the monster in 'No Such Thing'. The rest is seriously deadpan, which is a good thing.

It's like somebody took a piece of classic cinema and emphasized just how ridiculous and surreal every cliché and stereotype really is. Hal Hartley does a masterful job of giving a classic film narrative a fresh perspective with a hilariously sharp, convoluted, wild and gripping screenplay directed in a style that appears reminiscent of the French New Wave. Loaded with unabashedly random monologues, hysterically quotable moments and a beautifully chaotic plot, this film is certainly a classic in its own right.

This is one of my favorite HH movies, by far. This, Trust, and Undeniable Truth are I think his three best. This is a total dialoge movie, and HH does a great job in setting moods and playing with settings and music.

Usual cast of characters, and a strange plot, and a surreal setting, make for a moody movie, for sure this is not an 'up' movie but it IS very funny. Very quotable. The first HH movie I ever saw, and still by far my favorite.

And the Kool Thing Dance is funny and bizarre, not a pointless attempt to show his taste in music as the previous comment stated. We all know HH works brilliantly with music in his films, he does not do things to show off.

This is a beautifully made film that has dialogue that literally sparkles and puts 90% of Hollywood scripts to shame though that is admittedly not too difficult. I adore Hartley's use of language and the way he lets the actors perform in front of his camera. The post-drinking scene where they dance to Sonic Youth's Kool Thing is inspired cinema, also the scene where Donovan lists his decent bands 'the old Who'. The best scene is at the end though. I find it incredibly moving each time that this man who has constantly denied his feelings and fought his past is drawn to rest his head gently on the breast of the woman he has grown to love. Though surrounded by police the camera focuses only on his face as we hear the words 'Don't move' off-camera. Why would he move when he has finally found where he belongs? Immaculate framing, marvellous pace and a genuinely affecting story all combine to make this my second favourite Hartley film after 'Amateur' which is untouchable as far as I am concerned.

This movie is amazing. In a lot of ways it is an extremely painful movie to watch, watching people create their own destruction, watching the action play out a certain inevitability. But it's different also from a lot of stories, in that this kind of arc does not just continue on to its logical conclusion. The characters do not simply hurtle forth, but are always capable of thinking, changing. Really, really good.