Gere just can’t cut it as a hobo
Time Out Of Mind (15) Verdict: In second Gere Goodnight Mommy (15) Verdict: Chilling drama
EVEN before I sat through this dreary drama about a homeless man surviving in New York City, I felt I’d spent far too much time in Richard Gere’s company l ately. In The Benefactor, released last week with deservingly little fanfare, he played a hugely rich philanthropist. This time he’s on the other side of the tracks, playing George, estranged from his only daughter, living in a hostel and clearly suffering some kind of mental illness.
Oren Moverman’s film is entirely reliant on Gere’s acting qualities. We spend a lot of time watching him sleeping, eating, trying to remember things and not saying very much. And while there’s no doubting the curiosity value of seeing a pampered movie star playing down-and-out, and he certainly gives it his best shot, as an actor he doesn’t have the heft to carry the load.
Hector, a recent British film about the tribulations of a homeless man, painted a similar portrait much more engagingly.
GOODNIGHT Mommy is a chilling Austrian psychodrama, in which a woman returns from hospital all bandaged up following facial reconstruction. Her ten-year-old identical twin sons don’t like what they see, and find that she’s not the loving, nurturing mother they remember. It’s creepy, manipulative and, in its dark, quiet way, unforgettable.