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POLLOCK Send This Review to a Friend
A successful labor of love for Ed Harris, "Pollock," inquires into the life of the late, emotionally scarred artist Jackson Pollock. Harris plays Pollock and also directs the drama that was offered at the Toronto Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. His acting is deep and affecting as he dramatizes the artist wrestling with his demons in self-destructive outbursts, with the implication that one such outburst while behind the wheel led to his untimely death in an auto accident. Harris directs with great respect for his subject and concentrates on trying to frame both the artist as a creator and as a flawed human being wracked by his alcoholism.
What gives the film extra dimension is the superb performance by Marcia Gay Harden as artist Lee Krasner, who falls in love with Pollock and nurtures and encourages him through his moods, periods of defeat and infidelity. Her own work plays second fiddle to his, and she was to gain the recognition that she finally merited only after his death. Harden is a believable, dynamic force in delineating the volatile but close relationship.
There are occasional moments that seem contrived, such as Pollock's accidental discovery of his drip method of painting--a little like a composer hearing a bird chirp and getting the inspiration for a symphony. But that's a quibble. This is a smashing biography of a renowned painter by an actor-director who is proving himself to be an important film artist.
It is a joy to find a film with the level of maturity and intelligence exhibited in the screenplay by Barbara Turner and Susan J. Emshwiller and the way in which Harris has explored his subject both as actor and director. He has said he wanted to show the artist's creativity as well as his personal life, and didn't want this to be a typical biography. Harris has admirably achieved that goal, as we do get a vivid view of the creative process, including the gestation period involved in attempting to find inspiration. One doesn't even have to be a fan of Pollock's art to become engrossed in the drama .
The film, based on Steven Naifeh's book "Jackson Pollock: An American Saga," has been impressively photographed by Lisa Rinzler in a way that matches the nuances of the story, and production designer Mark Friedberg has contributed importantly to get the period look of the 1940s and 1950s, as has costume designer David C. Robinson. The work of Lisa Lawley as painting coach is also obviously vital to the feeling of authenticity.
The overall casting has broadened the effect of the film as a chronicler of the times, with Amy Madigan superb and often funny as the art backer Peggy Guggenheim and Jeffrey Tambor effective as key critic Clement Greenberg. The cast also includes Val Kilmer as Willem DeKooning, Sada Thompson as Pollock's mother and Bud Cort as Howard Putzel. Here is a rich experience far above the level of most such biographies, and it ranks as one of the best films of 2000. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
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