Review: A glorious 'Splendor'
Cheers for film about comic book creator
By Paul Clinton
CNN Reviewer
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Hope Davis and Paul Giamatti play Joyce Brabner and Harvey Pekar in "American Splendor."
Story Tools
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(CNN) -- "American Splendor" is one of the most original films in years.
A delicious combination of live action and comic book animation, the movie is a biopic about Harvey Pekar, a lovable, cantankerous curmudgeon who worked as a file clerk at a Veterans Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. He also created (originally with artist Robert Crumb) a comic book series called "American Splendor."
Pekar started publishing "American Splendor" in 1976. The comic book isn't about superheroes, mythological figures or caricatured animals; instead, it's a deeply truthful and unsentimental self-portrait that presents Harvey to the whole world, warts and all.
It's a celebration of monotony. Never has a chronicle of day-to-day banality been so utterly entertaining -- and that goes for the film as well.
Unique presentation
Directed and written by the husband-and-wife team of Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, and starring the terriric Paul Giamatti as Pekar and the brilliant Hope Davis as his wife Joyce, the film also features the real Pekar in a double role, as both the narrator and an interview subject within the film.
Indeed, the writer-director team presents the story in a unique way, going from live action to comic-book panels, from actors to the actual people portrayed, sometimes combining everything at once.
Pekar is an obsessive-compulsive with so many personality tics, he almost twitches as he discusses everything from jelly beans to the decline of American culture with his wild array of friends and co-workers at the V.A. hospital. In his filthy apartment, he is surrounded by stacks of old records and thousands of books, a collection he adds to by haunting local garage sales.
The actual Brabner and Pekar also appear in the movie.
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For Pekar, life is a series of idiotic torments and intermittent disasters, and a trip to the grocery store can inspire an entire comic series. He's a master of the mundane whose view of life is surprisingly astute.
His wife Joyce is striking as well. With her blunt bangs and owl-shaped glasses, Davis portrays her with deep compassion and complete honesty. Together, these two social misfits create a life together, fight cancer, and even create a family when they take in a friend's teenage daughter.
Uncommon man
It would be easy to label this film as the story of a common man. But Pekar is actually a very uncommon man, who lives life on his own terms and sticks to his glum outlook on existence regardless of the realities surrounding him.
Often hysterical, always frank and unflinchingly honest, this film is also strangely moving and absolutely compelling.
"American Splendor" isn't just a film -- it's an experience that's deeply human and profoundly moving. Giamatti and Davis both deliver multi-layered performances while bringing to life these wonderfully eccentric characters.
"American Splendor" is currently playing in Los Angeles, New York and Cleveland and will roll out across the country over the next month. It is rated R for language with a running time of 101 minutes.
