STUDIO: IFC Films
RELEASE DATE: May 30, 2008
STARRING: Diego Luna, Samantha Morton, Denis Lavant, and Werner Herzog
WRITTEN BY: Harmony Korine & Avi Korine
DIRECTED BY: Harmony Korine
GENRE: Drama
RATING: R

The critical concept of giving "points for originality" goes a long way with me. I see hundreds of films a year and if a writer/director can stand out with a fresh concept and a different take on the art of cinema, they're naturally going to stand out. No one has ever accused writer/director Harmony Korine of running with the crowd. His debut films, Gummo and Julien Donkey-Boy were bizarre-but-interesting takes on the Dogme style of filmmaking that gained arthouse prominence in the late '90s. Nearly ten years later, Korine has pulled a 180 and made a visually sumptuous film that breaks nearly every rule of Dogme. His Mister Lonely is a beautifully shot fable about identity and faith but, like a lot of Dogme films, it places too much emphasis on its style. After its interesting concepts are set up in the first act and after the stunning cinematography by Marcel Zyskind (a regular collaborator with Michael Winterbottom) has been allowed to wash over you, there's nothing left. The final hour of Mister Lonely is likely to leave you as on-your-own as its title implies, wanting something to grab on to but realizing that Korine may have an original voice and eye but can't really think of anything interesting to do with them.

The opening act of Mister Lonely completely works. In it, we meet a Michael Jackson impersonator, played with odd charisma by Diego Luna (Y tu mama tambien), in Paris. At an event one day at a nursing home, Wacko Jacko runs into a Marilyn Monroe impersonator played perfectly (as she always is) by Samantha Morton. Morton really has developed into one of the most consistent actresses alive. Almost every film she's in has been improved by her presence. Marilyn talks Michael into joining him at a commune filled with celebrity impersonators ranging from the Three Stooges to the Pope and dozens in between. Of course, there's trouble in paradise as a jealous love triangle forms between Marilyn, Michael, and Charlie Chaplin. Like I said, points for originality. Meanwhile, famously crazy director Werner Herzog plays the head of another commune of nuns, ones who are experiencing something of a miracle after a sister falls from a plane without a parachute and survives. How the religious commune and the celebrity one are related is never directly addressed, but you're asking the wrong questions for a movie like Mister Lonely.

Diego Luna has a quiet charm that's perfect for his character and Samantha Morton is a welcome addition to every cast but the real draw of Mister Lonely is the visual aesthetic created by Korine and Zyskind. Employing a completely different style than the realism he used in his earlier films, Korine and his D.P. create a visually lush film. Almost too much so. To be blunt, Mister Lonely started to put me to sleep. The idea that new blood only brings dissent and the dissolution of a perfect society is hit a little too squarely on the head to be effective. Shortly after Michael arrives at the commune, the sheep start dying. It's "Symbolism 101" and that this beautiful society will crumble becomes only a matter of time. Almost as if he wants to off-set the obvious symbols of the "A-plot," Korine goes too far to be obtuse with the subplot. The complete refusal to thematically or structurally link the miraculous skydiving nuns to the commune pushes the movie a little too far into "weird for weird's sake". There are performances worth seeing in Mister Lonely and the cinematography is stunning, but you'll need more than that after the first act and Korine can't bring it all together into one satisfying piece. Even with its originality, Mister Lonely goes too far in leaving its audience completely on their own.