# Jesus' Son (1999)

### reviewed by
Laura Clifford

    JESUS' SON
    ----------

FH lives a life of doing drugs and committing petty crimes. He spend his days getting high, stealing and scamming, trying to get the quick buck to support his habit and that of a beautiful addict named Michelle (Samantha Morton). FH is also a compassionate guy who has an overwhelming need to help those around him, but he is a miserable failure as a savior. Redemption does come to our hero, though, when he lands a job at an assisted care facility and discovers the true depths of his compassion for his fellow man and the grace it holds for him in "Jesus' Son."

    ROBIN:

Billy Crudup stars as FH, which is short for "nasty expletive that begins with an F" Head. FH is a kindly soul and a naif in the wilderness of life. He is also one that is easily led astray. He has a self-destructive passion that he exercises liberally with the use of drugs, committing crimes to support his bad habits. This passion is shared by Michelle, but for the young woman, becomes deadly. Michelle's death is a catalyst for FH, causing him to pursue his need to help others. FH's journey brings him to a number of life-affirming crossroads where the young man can see the wonders of life beneath the despair.

Along the way of his metaphysical journey of both mind and geography, FH meets a myriad of colorful characters. When he goes to work in a hospital emergency room, he encounters Georgie (Jack Black, "High Fidelity"), a pill-pushing and pill-popping orderly with a crazed streak. He meets and treats a victim of domestic violence - a man walks in with a butcher knife jammed into his eye, but no one seems too worried about because "his vitals are normal and his sight is excellent." FH takes the miracles he sees as a chance of redemption for his careless ways. But before he can exercise his new devotion, he agrees to help a hang dog divorcee, Wayne (Denis Leary), in the vengeful act of destroying the suburban home he shared with his now-estranged wife. When the pair OD on heroin, only FH recovers and seeks the help and shelter of a support group.

He meets a half-paralyzed woman, Mira (Holly Hunter), in the rehab center and they begin a relationship. Mira has lost more husbands and lovers to the Grim Reaper than she can count, but, she can also dance and helps teach FH a few things about life and love. To further serve his desire to help people, having journeyed from Iowa to Chicago and, finally, to sunny Phoenix, he takes a job at Beverly Homes, an assisted care facility.

The plight of the elderly and handicapped residents of the home is hard for the sensitive FH to take, at first. He perseveres, though, and comes to understand the curative effect a farm touch or a kind word can bring to someone all alone. He even takes the task of writing the home's weekly newsletter, bringing a little more pleasure to the inmates' sheltered lives. FH attains a grace that makes him realize that he has found the fulfillment he has searched for all of his life.

Producer/co-writers Elizabeth Cuthrell and David Urrutia adapt the short story collection, Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson, into an episodic little yarn that follows the life and learning arc of an odd young man, but one who has an innocent, beguiling charm and naivete. As FH first attempts to help people, he doesn't have a very good track record, but succeeds in getting a little better at it through each vignette. The episodic nature of the film, as adapted from the necessarily episodic short stories, causes a problem of flow for the overall story. Much of the first hour of the tale involves FH and Michelle, but there is not emotional payback when that episode ends. The rest of the chapters are more rushed than need be with sometimes-perfunctory treatment given to the other stories.

Billy Crudup, while not giving an Oscar caliber performance, does a solid job of depicting the underlying sweet nature of FH. FH is a likable guy, not too bright, but with a good heart. He always tries to do the right thing, when his mind and morals aren't addled with drugs, so his desire for redemption for his sins is nicely tied up by the film's end. It's a good-natured performance and shows ability and skill by Crudup.

The "name" cast fares unevenly. Samantha Morton ("Sweet & Lowdown"), as Michelle, is pretty and needy, but too much time is spent on her chapter with FH, with little satisfaction for their story. Denis Leary seemed uncomfortable in his role as the troubled Wayne. Dennis Hopper as an asylum inmate under FH's care has little to do and his interlude is not compelling at all. Holly Hunter, as the handicapped Mira, puts a sound edge on her character and comes out as a positive influence on FH, despite her countless past encounters with death.

There is an unexpected surreal quality that permeates the film and it is not just due to the overt drug subculture depicted. Throughout the story, FH has visions, like a naked pregnant woman floating on air or seeing the heart of Christ beating in a gangster's breast. There is also an extended sequence in the last portion where FH becomes a peeping Tom. He begins a voyeuristic relationship with a young, Mennonite woman whom he heard singing one day as he passed her home. This is a bizarre, but oddly touching sequence that departs from the rest of the film and, at the same time, is an integral part of FH's final redemption and freedom of spirit.

Tech credits are straightforward, but not exemplary. Hired gun helmer Allison Maclean does a solid job with the adapted material and, with the production team, puts a unique spin and feel on each of the chapters. The uneven telling of the tales is what hurts "Jesus' Son," not the technical and artistic players.

A credible performance by Billy Crudup, supported by a cast of vets, makes "Jesus' Son" a cut above average, but just a little one, and I give it a C+.

    LAURA:

Adapted from short stories by Denis Johnson, "Jesus' Son" is an episodic ramble of a film which chronicles the experiences of a drifter/junkie tagged with the name F*&$Head (Billy Crudup, "Without Limits") because everything he touches goes south.

FH meets up with Michelle (Samantha Morton, "Sweet and Lowdown"), a heroin addict who provides more surreal encounters with a cast of oddballs who do things like shoot one another by mistake in their doped out states of being. FH drifts downward with Michelle ('Oh Sweet Pea, come on and dance with me'), alternating between fights and tenderness, until she eventually ODs. Then FH continues to drift through emergency rooms (where he'll meet the infamous 'guy with a knife through his eye') and one rehab after another, until he eventually finds redemption working in a nursing home and spying on a blind Mennonite woman who sings hymns.

The large supporting cast features some good performances. Holly Hunter appears late and too little as woman whose boyfriends and multiple husbands keep dying on her. Denis Leary is another junkie ('all the good vibes happen when Wayne's around'). Jack Black ("High Fidelity") is Georgie, manic rehab nurse. A quiet Dennis Hopper is a rueful rehab patient.

While the film's bizarre moments, such as FH's companion saving a litter of bunnies by performing an on-the-spot road cesarean, are entertaining, and its more serious moments, such as witnessing a palsied man find out his wife is divorcing him, are moving, the pieces don't connect well into a well rounded whole. "Jesus' Son" earns most of its good will from Billy Crudup's likeable performance as a sort of holy fool.

    C+

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