Movie Review: A Home at the End of the World

I just read an article about Colin Farrell, just this very morning. It talks about how he is sueing an ex who is threatening to sell a sex tape that the two had made in private many moons ago. That wild man Colin! Who knew he could even make porn!

I bring this up because it is a piece of the overall puzzling movie that is A Home at the End of the World. Seriously.

It's the dramatic story about the redefinition of family in the seventies and the eighties. In it, a young man named Bobby (played by Colin Farrell), orphaned as a teen, who befriends Jonathan (played by Dallas Roberts). As the two grow, Jonathan steps out of the closet and moves to the East Villiage. Bobby, listless, follows and complicates things for Jonathan's plans. This being twenty years ago, of course, Jonathan must contract an HIV infection and Bobby, being ever so hippie-like, must be open about sex. It's an interesting premise that technically should work.

Based on a book by the same name and recreated by the author Michael Cunningham--this shows that books and screenplays are very, very different mediums. I've not read the book, but that doesn't mean much in a critical review. Here, the movie's topic is smart enough, but not very exciting. There is zero conflict, really, and what there is always resolved in a minute or two. They complain about not having money *poof* in two pages they open a cafe. An older brother character talks about being taken away and *poof* he dies in the next minute and a half. I don't doubt Cunningham's ability to write. I was VERY impressed with his creation of the film/book The Hours. But I think the success there led him to this movie. And he obviously doesn't have the skills of a dramaturge. If he did, he would have noticed that this should not have been a film.

But it's not for lack of trying. The cast works with what it can, given so little to do. I forgot the Jonathan character, so important to the plot, kept disappearing from view/given such little screen time. And Sean Penn's wife, the excellent Robin Wright Penn, is given so little to do, she practically screams for the short times she finds herself on camera. No literal screaming, mind you, but a busting out of a personality that wants to do something, anything, then be crapped on by this sad song.

So why did I bring up the porno thing at the beginning of this article then? It shows something about the lead. Colin Farrell does a excellent job as Bobby. But the only reason why I say that is because I know Mr. Farrell from the articles written about him. He's something of a powerhouse, given to hard partying and delicious anti-celebrity behavior that has the tabliods watching his very Irish personality. So to see him in a role that is so extremely sullen and withdrawn is to see the change--and be impressed. But therein lies the problem with his performance. Had I not know of him prior, I would of thought his acting as placid, if not bored. I would have not realized what kind of a stretch this really is for him.

So a droll script but excellent acting leads to a movie that really doesn't add up to much. It just sorta sits there and makes you say, "well, that's nice, is the mac and cheese ready?" Surely, the single people watching might have something to talk about at the coffee house, but I have found that the movie just isn't big enough for that.

If there is something to talk about, it's that Mr. Farrell does deserve a bit of fame. No, not for his filming his love making, tho I'm sure that might be impressive too, but that he is an extremely capable performer, regardless of his personality offscreen. With that, you can watch a leading man emerge in the next few years. I look forward to what he might do next.