# Pollock (2000)

### reviewed by
Steve Rhodes

    POLLOCK
    A film review by Steve Rhodes
    Copyright 2000 Steve Rhodes
    RATING (0 TO ****):  ***

POLLOCK, about the renowned and controversial modern artist Jackson Pollock, is at once intriguing and insightful as well as boring and baffling. Ed Harris, who stars as Pollock, makes his directorial debut with the film. Although clearly a labor of love on Harris's part, the film amply demonstrates why most actors need someone other than themselves giving them guidance. Harris delivers one of his best performances, indeed, another Oscar worthy one, but his director spoils what could have been a masterpiece by letting scenes drag on and on.

Still, for anyone interested in the creative process, the movie can be quite rewarding. It is difficult to show exactly how an artist goes from a blank canvas to a fully realized vision. POLLOCK tries by simply letting us observe Pollock at work. With the intense performance by Harris as a troubled artist, the creative tension is almost palpable.

Suggesting a Van Gogh-like relationship between art and madness, the story paints a picture of Pollock as an alcoholic who received a 4F in World War II because he was "too neurotic." Acting like a manic-depressive, Harris portrays Pollock as a troubled soul. Drinking from morning till night, with the exception of one two-year bout of sobriety, Pollock is a walking time bomb. That he was able to create anything memorable through that alcoholic haze is quite surprising.

One well-staged drinking-and-driving episode best illustrates the depth of Pollock's troubles. As he bikes back from the local grocer, having swapped a painting to pay his debt and buy a new case of beer, he can't wait until he gets home to pop open another cold one. Inebriated, he tries to hold the case on his handlebars while opening a beer. Weaving in the road, he crashes, losing all of his precious brew to the hot asphalt.

Pollock accidentally discovers his signature style of drizzling and flinging the paint. Spilling paint on the floor, he likes what he sees and decides never to touch the brush to the canvas again. Although his work was frequently criticized as consisting of little more than random splashes, Pollock defends his technique. "I don't use the accident, because I deny the accident," he says during an interview.

A genius when it came to paint, the sullen Pollock is awkward and insecure when communicating with fellow humans, probably because of his years of boozing, although an argument could be made that it was the other way round. Perhaps he hated human interaction so much that he resorted to drinking as a fast means of escape.

Basically a one-man show, it does have many other characters in complementary roles. Marcia Gay Harden (SPACE COWBOYS) plays fellow artist Lee Krasner, who takes Pollock in as she might a wounded puppy. Nurturing him with motherly advice and support, she eventually demands to be his wife. He agrees but flaunts his subsequent infidelity. Towards the end of the picture, Jennifer Connelly, who was so spectacular recently in REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, plays another of her more typical throwaway roles as the beautiful but vapid Ruth Klingman, the last of Pollock's mistresses. Amy Madigan, Harris's wife, looks plump, old and pasty as Peggy Guggenheim, Pollock's first patron.

Luck is shown to be the key difference between obscurity and fame. Only after Pollock happens to be featured in a Life magazine article is his genius recognized and his poverty transformed into wealth.

Is POLLOCK a beautiful failure or a flawed success? Like his paintings, it is in the eye of the beholder. For me, it was better than a documentary on the History Channel and well worth seeing. In an unsympathetic and enigmatic performance, Harris creates a fascinating, flawed man of flesh and blood, who throws temper tantrums like a toddler one minute and acts like a recluse the next. If you can stay awake through the long dull periods, you will learn a lot and get to witness one of the best performances of the year in the process.

POLLOCK runs 2:02. It is rated R for language and brief sexuality and would be acceptable for teenagers.

Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com <http://www.InternetReviews.com>

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