SYMPATHY FOR DELICIOUS
Directed by Mark Ruffalo
Produced by Andrea Sperling, Matthew Weaver & Scott Prisand
Written by Christopher Thorton
Released by Maya Entertainment
USA. 101 min. Not Rated
With Christopher Thornton, Mark Ruffalo, Juliette Lewis, Orlando Bloom, Laura Linney & Noah Emmerich
 

“Delicious” Dean O’Dwyer (writer Christopher Thornton) is a wheelchair-bound and penniless paraplegic who discovers he has a miraculous gift to cure the sick and dying. Immediately a priest at the downtown mission (Ruffalo) abuses Dean’s talent, offering the miracle hands for monetary donations. Dean rejects this and decides instead to take his act on the stage with a psychedelic hard rock group that incorporates his miracles into their show. He comes to realize that exploiting his gift is not only unfulfilling, but it also can get him into serious trouble when the law catches wind of the edgy act.

Though this is largely a miss, I admire the bold, weird decisions made in telling this story, and I actually dig the premise. Thornton is paralyzed from the waist down, having broken several vertebrae in an accident. Sympathy is a kind of auto-fantasy for him—the paralyzed hero who can cure everyone but himself. It’s a setup ripe for a morality tale, and the gritty, grotesque plot makes it unique. The problem is in the details. The rock band is downright silly. Orlando Bloom and Juliette Lewis are “The Stain” and Ariel Lee—frontman and frontwoman respectively—inane caricatures of what actual rock musicians look like and behave. Ariel mumbles on-the-nose lines like “I love painkillers,” while Stain’s absurdly long natty hair, unfocused theatrics, and confusing musical style belie writer Thornton’s understanding of the scene, removing a measure of authenticity from an already fantastic script.

Laura Linney plays another caricature, the band’s hard-nosed and opportunistic manager. This proves either a poor casting or directorial choice. Linney is allowed too much humanity in this role. For whatever originality the film has, this is still a formulaic plot that needs a villain, and this manager should have been more of that. Ruffalo, as a first-time director with a strong acting background, shows little discipline in tempering the likeability of his characters. Somehow, Linney’s manager, by the end, becomes just another sympathetic good guy fighting on Dean’s side. Everyone can’t be right in a movie about right and wrong.

The final resolution is inevitable since this is a film about redemption, and Dean’s journey must eventually lead him there. Unfortunately, the roundabout way he achieves it is both unlikely and disinteresting. The sappy final healing sequence relates very thinly to the rest of the film, and we’re left unsatisfied. If sympathy for the hero is what this writer and director are looking to evoke, I’m afraid they’ve come short. Michael Lee
May 6, 2011