Six Ways to Sunday
Music-video auteur Adam Bernstein wrote and directed this moody, lethargic tale
of a teenager headed to hell in a handbasket. Eighteen-year-old Harry (indie
up-and-comer Norman Reedus) spends his days flipping burgers and his nights
keeping his protective, housebound mother (Deborah Harry) company. When hophead
homeboy Arnie (Adrien Brody) hooks him up with some small-time Jewish
gangsters, the young goy learns he has a talent for breaking noses. He starts
earning big bucks, then falls for his new boss's crippled maid (Nadja's
Elina Löwensohn). For some reason, Harry's mom, a former lounge singer,
has no problem with his being a hired killer but is livid about his
girlfriend.
Based on Charles Perry's novel Portrait of a Young Man Drowning, this
film has a hip, neo-noir look and some impressive acting that's dimmed by
molasses-slow pacing, clumsy dialogue, and heavy-handed Oedipal content. Reedus
is like Leo DiCaprio's dark twin, and Brody is electrifying, but Ms. Harry's
performance is dull as dishwater and redeemed only by the Blondie songs on the
soundtrack.
-- Peg Aloi
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