Director Fancher, a lover of prose, has created a film that is
almost entirely
abstract in it’s visualization. Even when it appears to be reality-based,
it almost seems
like we’re still in that post-sleep dreaming period on the way back
to our consciousness.
Vann seems to good to be true as a film character. His rare, but extremely
insightful
voice-over thoughts are quieting, as he is. When he speaks, a calm
forms over the room.
When he kills, he doesn’t think himself anything monumental. He is
just a normal man.
The film is small. It has small ideas and an even smaller playing
field. It takes
place in a different kind of suburbia than we’ve been placed in thusfar
this year. The kind
of town where Doug (Cox), a middle-aged postal worker, can walk through
his backyard
and pretend to do karate on his bird feeder. It’s the kind of place
where his wife, Jane
(Ruel), can deny their daughter’s disappearance and drag herself into
a weariness that her
husband can’t cope with. It’s the kind of town where disappearances
are noted due to the
size of the town, but where things move on. Think of it’s aspects in
relation to the rest of
the films examining strange goings-on in suburbia this year : 'Arlington
Road', 'American
Beauty', 'Mumford', 'Stir of Echoes', etc.
Owen Wilson is truly the distinguishing fiber in this film. His rich,
subtle
performance vibrates with tinges of malevolence underneath an ambiguously
sweet
facade. Departing from his comic performaces ('Bottle Rocket', 'The
Haunting',
'Armageddon'), he gives a show of magnitude in this small film that
is a silence so loud
it’s ripping our eardrums.
The general feeling of discomfort as the film closed and Vann’s destiny
is
hanging in the wind is one that I love. I am entirely partial
to films that are like drugs. I
am a sucker for them. This film left me with a changed mood to the
tune of numbness. A
uniquely disturbing time at the movies is always welcome and doesn’t
come very often.
Watching the sad, compelling vitality in 'The Minus Man' dwindle and
diminish and the
screen jump with a slow, searing beauty was a truly engaging experience.
[A note about the ad campaign for this film : The trailer features
no clips from the
film, just a couple walking around after having seen it, talking
into the night. The girl
realizes she’s very late for work. When she arrives, she sees two
people floating in a
pool, dead. The tagline : “The Minus Man - it will have you talking
for hours” . Do I
agree? I do not. When have I ever agreed with an ad campaign? I
don’t think the film
begs conversation like it claims to. More than anything, I think
it begs quiet reflection.
The poster reads : “Don’t see it alone unless you like talking to
yourself”.
Damn it, I like talking to myself.]