My Own Love Song

An ex-singer paraplegic hiding from life (Renée Zellweger) goes on the road with her schizophrenic pal (Forest Whitaker), traveling from Kansas to New Orleans. He wants to meet his favorite author while she needs to sing again and more. Along the way they pick up a woman looking for her lost husband (Madeline Zima). Elias Koteas and Nick Nolte play eccentric characters they meet along the way.

"My Own Love Song" (2010) is a road drama in the mold of "Rain Man" (1988) mixed with elements of "A Love Song for Bobby Long" (2004). It comes across as an artsy Indie, except with a fairly big budget, a notable cast and a writer/director who had drawn Oscar attention in the past, not to mention a soundtrack that features 16 new Bob Dylan songs.

If you favor those other two films you might like this one, although they're superior. There's enough good to make it worth checking out, like Dylan's Folk/blues/rock/gospel/country. But I didn't find the story very compelling. The similar "The Yellow Handkerchief" (2008) had the same budget, but is easily the best of the lot IMHO.

The film runs 1 hour, 42 minutes, and was shot in Kansas and mostly Louisiana.

GRADE: C.

This movie is part of the "nouvelle vague" in cinema, a more evolved and profound cinema, with deep undergrounds of humanity and courage, with tranquility of sharing and understanding. The analogy with the Wizard of Oz is obvious, since that is where this movie got its roots: three people experiencing different kinds of losses, two of them from Kansas, on a trip to discover the answers they long for - answers they will eventually find in themselves.

The director does some terrific job, no matter what they say; he takes all kinds of risks, uses unconventional tools up to the point where a less circumspect and more neophyte viewer would lose track, leaning on extraordinary performances from all actors. The characters are simple, yet sophisticated.

For the simple-minded, this movie does not mean much - it's just a road movie with sparkles of unconscious and sentimental movements. Those movements though are instruments of one's true self, as authentic and pathetic and sparkling as any true self is.

Way to go for la nouvelle vague!

French director Dahan's first film set in post-Katrina Louisiiana and shot in English is a rambling, overly sentimental road picture about two damaged individuals who go on a quest. Zellwegger's paralyzed from a car accident seven years ago, when she met Whitaker in the hospital. He was there for mental problems. He still thinks he hears the voices of angels. They go off in an old Seventies car (which is later stolen) to see the author of a bestselling books on angels, and Whittiker's character wants to take Zellwegger to the birthday party of her little boy, who was adopted by a rich family when her injuries and poverty made her unable to raise him.

On the way they meet a run-down singer (Nick Nolte), something like Jeff Bridges' character in CRAZY HEART except that he only plays the guitar and has sunk so low he can only get gigs at an old hotel and that only if he brings a singer. So he persuades an unwilling Zellweger to come along and perform. There and at her son's birthday Zellwegger gives surprisingly powerful, earnest performances of two songs -- both written by Bob Dylan for this film. The colorful southern atmosphere and the Dylan compositions (which include his own very Tom-Waits-esquire performances on the soundtrack) may be the main reason for watching this otherwise weak effort. It would work better if Whitaker didn't give one of his most mannered performances and if the two principals were not written in as such hopeless losers. Poor critical rating in France: Allociné 1.2 (26). An error of taste, however well-meaning; the director is out of his element. Some will enjoy the music and the settings but this is at best an interesting failure despite the name cast.

You've read the story in these critiques. It's a road movie about a small group of damaged characters in search of some undefined salvation in the form of a huckster who claims that angels exist. The Forrest Whitaker character, Joey, bothered me the most. The slow-witted crazy man with a heart of gold, who takes care of the paraplegic singer played by Renee Zellweger. The character is a movie cliché, straight out of Of Mice And Men, and Whitaker didn't bring anything new to it. Is he schizophrenic and off his meds? Is he bipolar and off his meds? Whatever, he only shows up in movies, not in real life. At one point, late in the story, there is a diversion into the "legend" of Robert Johnson losing his soul at the Crossroads in exchange for a supernatural ability on the guitar. Then: on to something else. It goes nowhere. What was the point? Is our little band of characters somehow like Robert Johnson? Apparently not, because the next sequence is a high-speed car chase down highway 61. There were some nice moments, but they were poorly strung together.

I saw this via Netflix streaming video. Written and edited by the Frenchman who directed the superb "Edith Piaf" story (La Mome') it is set in the USA, filmed in various parts of Louisiana, and ends up in New Orleans.

The story centers on the story of Renée Zellweger as Jane Wyatt, one time recording artist who, 7 years earlier, had become crippled and wheelchair bound as a result of an automobile accident. So she pretty much put her life on hold.

Seemingly her best friend in the small Kansas town is Forest Whitaker as the somewhat kooky Joey, who has visions of angels. He goes off the deep end occasionally, often uses poor judgment in certain situations, but jokingly calls himself "Jane's body guard." He in fact does help her out at times.

One day Joey finds an unopened letter in Jane's house, it is from her now 10-yr-old son, living in Baton Rouge, inviting her to his communion in July. Joey doesn't tell her about the letter, instead puts it in his pocket and sets about to get Jane to take a road trip, he wants her to see her son.

The road trip does have its share of pitfalls, the first being their car burns up. Literally. At a motel along comes Elias Koteas as Dean, who sells them a car for $500, and it works fine, but the next morning they awake to find it gone. Dean has cheated them.

Then comes young Madeline Zima as Billie, whose young husband just seemed to take off, so she joins them in the road trip.

At one stopping point they need a place to crash, hear music, and go to find Nick Nolte as Caldwell, playing a guitar. He joins in for the road trip.

Describing it in my feeble manner in no way does justice to the movie. It is very different, often touching, and very well acted.