George finds himself homeless after his life fell apart and must take refuge at a center as he attempts to rebuild the relationship with his daughter Maggie. Making friends with Dixon who helps him realize his life can still be worth something.
Richard Gere like you have never seen him before, it is a truly incredible performance but in a tough going film which is a struggle to get through the two hour running time. It actually feels longer than that unfortunately.
We never really get the full story or any real answers about how George ended up on the streets, the little pieces we get we are unsure if that is true. I don’t even think in the end George has any idea himself after the amount of lies he has told to people and trying to convince them he just currently doesn’t have anywhere to live and that it is not a big problem. With that though he is trying to convince himself that it really is not that bad.
He still manages to find enough money to get alcohol and certainly abuses that on a daily basis. I did like the friendship with Dixon if he is real of course, many events could suggest that he isn’t real either. So it certainly has plenty of layers and different possibilities the big problem with that though is that it creates more of a problem as a viewer in trying to gage understanding.
Maggie works in a bar we get that and her mother passed away when she was a lot younger and she never had a proper relationship with her father, well a good one anyway. Other than that though we don’t get much else about her. She is hardly in the film which is a shame as Jena Malone has grown so much as an actress over the years, it would have been great to see her have more screen time.
I guess the best word to describe this film has to be boring, as much as I am trying to be kind and nice about it. I really did struggle to get to the end and did think about turning it off. But I am a big fan of Gere so that is what made me continue to the end. It is a terrific performance but the script is very weak, we don’t get enough from that for it to be engaging enough.
It does show a very different side to New York to what we are used to seeing in films though, the more underworld and highlighting that a lot of people are homeless, stuck and could easily become lost in the big city that is supposed to be such a magical place. Maybe if it raises awareness of this it has done something good? Ok yes I am clutching to try and find something very positive. I am very interested to know anyones thoughts if they have watched this film? Didn’t seem to get a cinema release.
