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Sunday, Jul 12, 2009
A love triangle with Colin Farrell and Robin Wright Penn in two of its corners sure sounds intriguing, so where did this film go wrong?
Jul 23, 2004 | One of the central ideas behind "A Home at the End of the World," which writer Michael Cunningham adapted from his novel of the same name, is that we're not just born into families -- we can fall into them, too, in any number of unlikely formations and permutations. That's a valid and sturdy idea. But "A Home at the End of the World" is one of those works that uses characters to explore an idea -- like puppets being moved around a vast, nebulous game board -- instead of merely allowing the theme to surface, almost imperceptibly, as a result of our involvement with the characters.
In "A Home at the End of the World," we never fully know what those characters are thinking or feeling. Every time we think we're getting closer to understanding them, director Michael Mayer (this is his debut) shifts our attention elsewhere, leaving us clutching a headless, scentless bouquet of nuances. At the movie's end, nuance is all we have left; beyond the admirable efforts of some of the actors, the picture leaves behind nothing so human as a fingerprint.
"A Home at the End of the World" stars Colin Farrell as Bobby, a sweet, open-hearted but spacey and somewhat directionless young man who nonetheless has a way of working soothing magic on every human being he encounters. The picture opens in Cleveland in 1967; we meet young Bobby (he's played by Andrew Chalmers, who really does look like a 9-year-old version of Farrell), who's devoted to his free-spirited, laid-back, chemically enlightened teenage brother, Carlton (Ryan Donowho).
Carlton is the kind of guy who's refreshingly unembarrassed when young Bobby walks in on him as he's having sex with his girlfriend ("It's just love," he states simply). He gives Bobby a mini tab of acid -- "Windowpane, for clarity" -- and then proceeds to introduce him to the peaceful beauty of a graveyard near their suburban home. These early scenes are the most effective ones in the movie, not because they seem like accurate representations of the '60s, but because they so vividly capture a child's recollection of the era -- a world in which puzzling but enticing free love and chiffon dresses with big swirls on them mix interchangeably, as if each could be an acceptable stand-in for the other.
"A Home at the End of the World"
Directed by Michael Mayer
Starring Colin Farrell, Robin Wright Penn, Sissy Spacek
But by the time Bobby (at this point played by Erik Smith) reaches high school, tragedy has fractured his family. He seeks out the companionship of a boy at his school, Jonathan (the 15-year-old version is played by Harris Allan; the adult by Dallas Roberts), an awkward but sensitive kid who's both intrigued by and attracted to this wise, fragile yet self-possessed elf-child. (Admittedly, Bobby's seemingly endless supply of marijuana may be part of the draw at first.) Jonathan's mother, Alice (Sissy Spacek), a housewife whose life has its share of empty corners, falls under Bobby's spell too: She feels both protective of him and comforted by his preternatural calmness.
As teenagers, Jonathan and Bobby begin a boyish romance: Bobby is completely comfortable with it, but Jonathan is frightened and confused. The years pass, and the kids grow up and grow apart: It's now the early '80s. Jonathan has moved to New York, while Bobby stays in Cleveland, working in a bakery. But Bobby still feels a kinship with his old friend, and his loneliness for him causes him to trek to New York, where the now openly gay Jonathan is sharing a flat with a seemingly kooky but emotionally grounded hat designer named Clare (Robin Wright Penn).
