Rated
M, 1 hr 54 mins
Screening
at Dendy and Palace Electric
3.5
Stars
Review
© Jane Freebury
The cartoon
that lends its caption to this Gus Van Sant film shows a sheriff’s posse
staring at an empty wheelchair among cactus in the desert. The rough line
drawing instantly conveys a lot about the artist and the bleak, irreverent
humour that made him famous. The American cartoonist, the late John Callahan,
also chose it for the title of his autobiography in 1990.
Callahan was
paralysed from the waist down in a car accident while on a bender with a friend
when they were young and reckless. Miraculously, his mate, Dexter (Jack Black),
who was at the wheel, walked away from the overturned VW Beetle with a few
scratches, but the misadventure turned John into a quadriplegic. Eventually he
recovered limited use of his arms.
If he wasn’t
already prone to a bit of self-destruction, this convinced young John that
there wasn’t a lot of point to it all. The hapless 21-year-old wasn’t in the
best of shape to begin with. Struggling with feelings of abandonment – he’d
been adopted, never knew his birth mother – John (Joaquin Phoenix in the role)
was going nowhere, a flask of tequila for company.
The late
Robin Williams was once keen for this role, but I can’t see that he could have
worked as well as Phoenix. In unkempt, ginger wig, flip-flops and the flares of
the day, his performance as Callahan is pitch-perfect.
And Phoenix
has form in this kind of character – remember the execrable I’m Still Here
– but he is talented and versatile with substantial range. Compelling as Johnny
Cash (Walk the Line) or as reclusive writer (Her), and both as Jesus (Mary
Magdalene) and evil Roman emperor (Gladiator).
The same can
be said of filmmaker, Van Sant, who has been giving us food for thought over
the years with his distinctive explorations of the private worlds of creative
types, often musicians, often marginalised, and other characters at the
crossroads.
In Don’t
Worry, Donny (Jonah Hill), the silky voiced leader of the alcoholics
recovery group that Callahan has signed up to, becomes just about as
interesting as Callahan. Maybe more so.
Actor Jonah
Hill, in heavy disguise in long blonde wig and beard, and 70s smart casual,
demonstrates, with perhaps a hint of menace, the subtle art of influence and
persuasion, and how folks can be shown how they themselves contribute to their
predicament.
It is less
easy to believe in Rooney Mara’s character, Annu, a Swedish physiotherapist who
has a big hand in Callahan’s rehabilitation, but her romance with him is at
least a welcome diversion after some gruelling early scenes of Callahan in
disarray. Curiously, Van Sant was able to make scenes of flying along the
pavement in a wheelchair uplifting too, and that's before we even get to
the humour.
How did
Callahan find his mojo and become a famous cartoonist in America and overseas?
His path to fame and some version of happiness is revealed in this touching,
free-wheeling character study, that feels authentic and has no truck with
feel-good homily. It shows, once again, Van Sant’s flair for drawing his
audience into a private world and convincing them, for the duration, that they
are experiencing it too.
Also published at Jane's blog and broadcast on
ArtSound FM 92.7 Canberra and 90.3 Tuggeranong
