Review: Jesus' Son (2000)
Laura Clifford
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FH lives a life of doing drugs and committing petty crimes. He spend his days
getting high, stealing and scamming, trying to get the quick buck to support
his habit and that of a beautiful addict named Michelle (Samantha Morton). FH is
also a compassionate guy who has an overwhelming need to help those around him,
but he is a miserable failure as a savior. Redemption does come to our hero,
though, when he lands a job at an assisted care facility and discovers the true
depths of his compassion for his fellow man and the grace it holds for him in
"Jesus' Son."
ROBIN:
Billy Crudup stars as FH, which is short for "nasty expletive that begins with
an F" Head. FH is a kindly soul and a naif in the wilderness of life. He is
also one that is easily led astray. He has a self-destructive passion that he
exercises liberally with the use of drugs, committing crimes to support his bad
habits. This passion is shared by Michelle, but for the young woman, becomes
deadly. Michelle's death is a catalyst for FH, causing him to pursue his need
to help others. FH's journey brings him to a number of life-affirming crossroads
where the young man can see the wonders of life beneath the despair.
Along the way of his metaphysical journey of both mind and geography, FH meets
a myriad of colorful characters. When he goes to work in a hospital emergency
room, he encounters Georgie (Jack Black, "High Fidelity"), a pill-pushing and
pill-popping orderly with a crazed streak. He meets and treats a victim of
domestic violence - a man walks in with a butcher knife jammed into his eye,
but no one seems too worried about because "his vitals are normal and his sight
is excellent." FH takes the miracles he sees as a chance of redemption for his
careless ways. But before he can exercise his new devotion, he agrees to help a
hang dog divorcee, Wayne (Denis Leary), in the vengeful act of destroying the
suburban home he shared with his now-estranged wife. When the pair OD on
heroin, only FH recovers and seeks the help and shelter of a support group.
He meets a half-paralyzed woman, Mira (Holly Hunter), in the rehab center and
they begin a relationship. Mira has lost more husbands and lovers to the Grim
Reaper than she can count, but, she can also dance and helps teach FH a few
things about life and love. To further serve his desire to help people, having
journeyed from Iowa to Chicago and, finally, to sunny Phoenix, he takes a job
at Beverly Homes, an assisted care facility.
The plight of the elderly and handicapped residents of the home is hard for the
sensitive FH to take, at first. He perseveres, though, and comes to understand
the curative effect a farm touch or a kind word can bring to someone all alone.
He even takes the task of writing the home's weekly newsletter, bringing a
little more pleasure to the inmates' sheltered lives. FH attains a grace that
makes him realize that he has found the fulfillment he has searched for all of
his life.
Producer/co-writers Elizabeth Cuthrell and David Urrutia adapt the short story
collection, Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson, into an episodic little yarn that
follows the life and learning arc of an odd young man, but one who has an
innocent, beguiling charm and naivete. As FH first attempts to help people, he
doesn't have a very good track record, but succeeds in getting a little better
at it through each vignette. The episodic nature of the film, as adapted from
the necessarily episodic short stories, causes a problem of flow for the
overall story. Much of the first hour of the tale involves FH and Michelle, but
there is not emotional payback when that episode ends. The rest of the chapters
are more rushed than need be with sometimes-perfunctory treatment given to the
other stories.
Billy Crudup, while not giving an Oscar caliber performance, does a solid job
of depicting the underlying sweet nature of FH. FH is a likable guy, not too
bright, but with a good heart. He always tries to do the right thing, when his
mind and morals aren't addled with drugs, so his desire for redemption for his
sins is nicely tied up by the film's end. It's a good-natured performance and
shows ability and skill by Crudup.
The "name" cast fares unevenly. Samantha Morton ("Sweet & Lowdown"), as
Michelle, is pretty and needy, but too much time is spent on her chapter with
FH, with little satisfaction for their story. Denis Leary seemed uncomfortable
in his role as the troubled Wayne. Dennis Hopper as an asylum inmate under FH's
care has little to do and his interlude is not compelling at all. Holly Hunter,
as the handicapped Mira, puts a sound edge on her character and comes out as a
positive influence on FH, despite her countless past encounters with death.
There is an unexpected surreal quality that permeates the film and it is not
just due to the overt drug subculture depicted. Throughout the story, FH has
visions, like a naked pregnant woman floating on air or seeing the heart of
Christ beating in a gangster's breast. There is also an extended sequence in
the last portion where FH becomes a peeping Tom. He begins a voyeuristic
relationship with a young, Mennonite woman whom he heard singing one day as he
passed her home. This is a bizarre, but oddly touching sequence that departs
from the rest of the film and, at the same time, is an integral part of FH's
final redemption and freedom of spirit.
Tech credits are straightforward, but not exemplary. Hired gun helmer Allison
Maclean does a solid job with the adapted material and, with the production
team, puts a unique spin and feel on each of the chapters. The uneven telling
of the tales is what hurts "Jesus' Son," not the technical and artistic players.
A credible performance by Billy Crudup, supported by a cast of vets, makes
"Jesus' Son" a cut above average, but just a little one, and I give it a C+.
LAURA:
Adapted from short stories by Denis Johnson, "Jesus' Son" is an
episodic ramble of a film which chronicles the experiences of a drifter/junkie
tagged with the name F*&$Head (Billy Crudup, "Without Limits") because
everything he touches goes south.
FH meets up with Michelle (Samantha Morton, "Sweet and Lowdown"), a heroin
addict who provides more surreal encounters with a cast of oddballs who
do things like shoot one another by mistake in their doped out states of
being. FH drifts downward with Michelle ('Oh Sweet Pea, come on and dance
with me'), alternating between fights and tenderness, until she eventually
ODs. Then FH continues to drift through emergency rooms (where he'll meet
the infamous 'guy with a knife through his eye') and one rehab after another,
until he eventually finds redemption working in a nursing home and spying
on a blind Mennonite woman who sings hymns.
The large supporting cast features some good performances. Holly
Hunter appears late and too little as woman whose boyfriends and multiple
husbands keep dying on her. Denis Leary is another junkie ('all the good
vibes happen when Wayne's around'). Jack Black ("High Fidelity") is Georgie,
manic rehab nurse. A quiet Dennis Hopper is a rueful rehab patient.
While the film's bizarre moments, such as FH's companion saving a litter
of bunnies by performing an on-the-spot road cesarean, are entertaining,
and its more serious moments, such as witnessing a palsied man find out his
wife is divorcing him, are moving, the pieces don't connect well into a well
rounded whole. "Jesus' Son" earns most of its good will from Billy Crudup's
likeable performance as a sort of holy fool.
C+
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Susan Granger
Susan Granger's review of "JESUS' SON" (Lions Gate/Alliance Atlantis)
Adapted from a collection of short stories by Denis Johnson,
this episodic, un-rated film was heralded at the Venice and Toronto
Film Festivals and at the New Directors/New Film Festival in
Manhattan. It chronicles the adventures of a slacker who disdains
convention and is known only by a nickname that cannot be
printed. Let's call him F-H for propriety's sake, acknowledging his
uncanny ability to screw things up. As played by Billy Crudup ("Waking
the Dead"), F-H is a heroin-using hedonist, a passive loser, who is
out for thrills and excitement as he makes his way from Iowa to
Phoenix during the counterculture movement of the early 1970s. The
title comes from Lou Reed's lyrics to the Velvet Underground song
"Heroin," and F-H spends much of his time hallucinating, often within
a religious iconography. On his travels, he encounters some pathetic,
oddball characters like the derelicts in a farmhouse where he hangs
out and gets stoned and a psychopathic emergency-room orderly (Jack
Black) with whom F-H pops uppers and downers simultaneously. F-H falls
in love with a free-spirited fellow addict (Samantha Morton of "Sweet
and Lowdown") until tragedy inevitably occurs. There are
subplots/cameos with Holly Hunter, Denis Leary, Will Patton, Greg
Germann and Dennis Hopper. Certainly screenwriter Oren Moverman,
producer-screenwriters Elizabeth Cuthrell & David Urrutia, and
director Alison Maclean ("Crush") aren't afraid to take risks
exploring the quietly desperate, black humor in themes of boredom,
alienation, death and salvation - all within a $2.5 million budget. On
the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Jesus' Son" is an edgy, detached,
fragmented 5, but recommended only if you can tolerate graphic drug
use and rambling junkie humor.