The Reel Critic

Author: Jessica Kissinger

MOVIE: Mister Lonely
DIRECTOR: Harmony Korine
STARRING: Diego Luna &
Samantha Morton

A forlorn little film, "Mister Lonely" whizzed in and out of theaters, and yet, despite its rather quirky premise - the story primarily concerns a commune of impersonators - the film teems with melancholic beauty as director Harmony Korine performs an incredible visual experiment, setting historical and literary figures fully decked out in exuberant costume against the gloomy Scottish countryside.

"Mister Lonely" opens when a dejected Michael Jackson (Diego Luna) meets Marilyn Monroe (Samantha Morton) while performing at a nursing home in Paris. After spending the afternoon together, Marilyn invites Michael to live on a commune. They arrive at a lush farm in the highlands topped with a luxurious castle where Charlie Chaplin (Denis Lavant), Abraham Lincoln (Richard Strange), Buckwheat (Michael-Joel Stuart) and the Pope (James Fox), among others, tend to animals and the land and put on a variety show. Korine joins this narrative with a secondary story about nuns who jump out of an airplane without parachutes to prove their faith in God.

The two plots never meet; however, be it a story about faith in God or the refuge of a commune, both share the notion that illusions mask human frailty. With these illusions, characters forget that, in Marilyn's words, "it takes longer to live than to die." Korine expertly highlights this idea by coupling the characters' suspension of reality with visual suspension, frequently dipping into slow motion or allowing the wind to catch the nuns' robes and lift the hems of Marilyn's white dress.

The film brims with several tangential episodes that contribute more to a philosophy than a plot. Soon after Michael joins the commune, men in full body suits, fit more for toxic chemicals than veterinary work, extract blood samples from the sheep, determining that the animals are infected and must be killed. Abraham Lincoln decides that it would only be appropriate for the members of the commune to kill the animals, so they all huddle together for the death of the sheep as the three stooges shoot them execution style.

Most of the characters have private moments with the camera, which Director of Photography Marcel Zyskind takes full advantage of by stringing together a series of stunning (though disassociated) images. These private shots seem to stand outside of time, briefly seizing a character's interiority, just as Michael attempts to slow time and capture others' essential selves by speaking into his tape recorder. His thoughts become a sparse narration that wafts over film like the highland haze.

Though decked in fantastical attire, all of the actors gve fairly muted and internal performances, the only exception being a short tempered Lincoln who laces his every phrase with more four letter words than standard English ones. Still, much stirs beneath sad-eyed smiles of these characters - especially the ever-tragic Monroe. "Mister Lonely" becomes an examination of human frailty and loneliness, a film that speaks to quiet sadness and an odd sense of beauty that accompanies the dejected.