Despite a title taken from Rimbaud's poem, Bob Meyer's debut has less in common with the wunderkind symbolist than with David Mamet and the Coen Brothers. And Charles Bukowski, from whose oeuvre Mort seems to have sprung. He's an ex-poet/barfly, and John Malkovich has a lot of fun muttering his nutty non sequiturs. Long estranged from his sister Eileen (Dana Delaney), Mort shows up one day at her house and is allowed to stay if he keeps sober. Meanwhile, Eileen's son and his friend plan to sail from Lake Michigan to the Atlantic Ocean and beyond, so they decide to buy a leaky sloop from Fletcher, a con man played by John Goodman who, like Malkovich, has a good time hamming it up. Though an opening scene suggests that all the odd elements might be connected, it's soon obvious that it doesn't matter. Held up from release for years, probably because nobody knew what to make of it, the film deserves a look, and Meyer is a talent worth watching.
