LEVITY
Directed by: Ed Solomon.
Produced by: Richard N. Gladstein, Adam Merims & Solomon.
Written by: Solomon.
Director of Photography: Roger Deakins.
Edited by: Pietro Scalia.
Music by: Mark Oliver Everett.
Released by: Sony Picture Classics.
Country of Origin: USA. 100 min. Rated: R.
With: Billy Bob Thornton, Morgan Freeman, Holly Hunter & Kirsten Dunst.

Released from prison after 23 years, Manuel Jordan returns to the scene of his crime, where as a teenager he shot and killed a convenient store cashier in a botched robbery. Now determined to live a crime-free life, Jordan earns his room and board by overseeing the parking lot of an inner-city mission run by a street-smart preacher (Freeman). Jordan becomes savior to a self-destructive suburbanite Sofia (Dunst), who frequents a nightclub across the street. And in another attempt at redemption, he befriends Adele (Hunter), his victim's sister. As her teenage son Abner, named after his slain uncle, becomes involved in a gang war, Adele implausibly turns to Manuel for help, oblivious to his background or motivation. Although Hunter’s much-needed presence as a determined single mom raises the stakes, Thornton’s one-note role is so understated that the charisma shown in other films (especially in A Simple Plan) is absent here. Further, some of the dialogue, especially Sofia’s, doesn’t ring true-“Is that your icy stare you learned in prison or something.” And the film takes a corny and unconvincing turn when she joins the mission’s teenage male clique. Besides Hunter, Freeman has charm to spare. But in this earnest but predictable and heavy-handed parable, the only trace of irony is in the title. KT
May 6, 2003