Mister Lonely (2007)

Having seen/experienced/regretted Gummo, I am wayyyyy cautious about Harmony Korine. But the premise of Mister Lonely was way too good to pass up. A down-and-out and poetically-inclined Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) living in Paris but knowing no French meets a friendly Marilyn Monroe impersonator (Samantha Morton) while entertaining at a nursing home. She convinces him to move to Scotland, where she and several other impersonators have established a haven where "everyone is famous" at a fairly isolated castle. Its inhabitants farm and raise sheep while they build a large theater in the hopes that audiences will rush in to see their celebrity-impersonating performances. Michael is instantly smitten with Marilyn, but she's married to asshole Charlie Chaplin (Denis Lavant) and they have a daughter, Shirley Temple (Esme Creed-Miles, Morton's actual daughter).

Other members of the little commune include Madonna (Melita Morgon, actual Madonna impersonater), Abraham Lincoln (Richard Strange), and The Pope (James Fox). And for some annoyingly unexplained reason, Little Red Riding Hood (Rachel Korine, his wife). Unlike the harmonious, playful paradise Marilyn envisions, there are numerous problems ranging from their sheep falling prey to a fatal disease, lack of public interest in their stage show, and general tensions between all of the impersonators. Michael and Marilyn try to keep things peaceful but a lot of the strains run too deep. It doesn't help that her marriage is frightfully abusive and no one is doing anything about it. Though Michael is happy just to have found a place where he can fit in, he has trouble maintaining an illusion of prosperity and happiness in the midst of this turmoil, and everything is pretty tragic.

Parallel to this tale is a seemingly unrelated story about powder blue nuns from Panama who are led by Father Umbrillo (Werner Herzog, who, I can tell you right now, thankfully didn't try to shoot anyone). After an accident in which a nun miraculously survives a deathly plunge, they are convinced that God wants them all to jump out of planes. So they do. I assume it's like some multi-layered metaphor about faith and the price of doing something good for the wrong reasons but really it was just an excuse for Korine to throw in some pretty shots of robed figures flying through the air and fill up the time since the plot was thin.

Yeah so I had some problems with this movie. I was disappointed with the direction Korine took the concept. I guess I hoped it'd be more about their identity crises and connections to celebrities and personaly histories. But it seems Korine's main goal in filmmaking is less on character and plot development than on loosely connected scenes detailing scattered events. That's ok for him, but his style just isn't really my thing. It's not that I need plot or development (I dug Slacker, for example), I just don't get anything special out of his version. A wealth of presumably interesting characters are introduced at once, and then barely do anything interesting for the rest of the film. The whole celebrity impersonator thing almost didn't matter. And the whole side plot with the nuns was interesting, but dragged out and seemingly unnecessary.

That being said, it had its redeeming qualities. Diego Luna and Samantha Morton were both adorable, and I definitely felt for their characters. Their performances really made the movie. I also enjoyed the shots of the falling nuns, which made for some really interesting and (to me at least) unique visuals. The soundtrack was fun as well, with lots of laid back, old-timey tunes. And surprisingly I found the ending very affecting, despite lackluster development. The concept is original and engaging to a point, but the slow-moving plot and non sequitors are not for the casual film-goer. To be sure it's more accessible and enjoyable than Korine's other films (as far as I can tell), but all together it's not as good as it could have been.

3/5