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| Caveman's Valentine, The |
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  (5/10)
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Runtime: 105 |
| Public Rating: 7.50 (4 votes) |
Director: Kasi Lemmons |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Thriller |
Year: 2001 |
| Writer(s): George Dawes Green |
| Distributor: 1 |
| Reviewed by: Movieman |
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The Caveman's Valentine is the type of film that is easily dismissed as an artsy and strange work that delight the critics with a wild main character but at the same time it is a movie that cannot be forgotten.
The film is about an ex-Julliard student and now a bum living on the streets, Romulus Led- better (Samuel L.Jackson; Unbreakable). Romulus believes that there is man living in a tall skyscraper overlooking New York and is taping and listening in on his every move and conversation. This is done (in Romulus' mind) by a ray of light shining across the city, which only he can see. How he got this way was never clearly explained but after dropping out of Julliard to take care of his girlfriend who was pregnant, he started getting visions and was convinced someone was after him. He felt the only safe place was living in a cave at the center of a park in New York. In this cave he has a wireless TV and your basic sleeping quarters. So, it is with this new dwelling that he became known as 'Caveman'.
The movie gets rolling when he has a vision (via the TV) of two face-less men stringing up a man onto a tree. The next morning 'lo and behold there is a young man, Scotty (Sean MacMahon) sitting in the tree and had apparently frozen to death. Romulus, being the crazy type, could not convince the police (of one of them is his daughter, Lulu) that he saw who did it and he was convinced that it was the man in the tower.
With some help from another street person, and a friend of Scotty's, Romulus discovers that Scotty was a model for the famous artist, David Leppenraub (Colm Feore) and of course he believes that Leppenraub is working for the tower man. There were rumors circulating the streets that David had abused Scotty and there was a tape of the crime, which was not found.
After contacting an old friend, Romulus gets an invitation to David's farm where he does all his photography work and begins investigating. But, he needed a suit to pass as a professional, so with the help of divorce lawyer, Bob (Anthony Michael Hall; The Breakfast Club), he met on the street one day; he gave him a suit and let him wash up in his home. When Romulus finally gets to the farm, he meets several people including Moira, David's sister, Joey Peasley (Rodan), a video photographer and assistant to David during his shoots. And the plot thickens, or gets a little mushy, I'm not really sure.
The Caveman's Valentine is the sophomore effort from Kasi Lemmons, who also directed another film with Samuel L. Jackson, Eve's Bayou. She has an interesting eye like Tarsem Singh, the director of The Cell, as they both dwell into the mind of a crazy man and the inner- workings of it all. But what they don't have is the style and substance. Singh did a great job (with much help from the cinematographer and set designer) of going into the mind and actually making you fixed on the sick mind. Lemmons, however, just supplied us with sloppy visuals of some moth people dancing around naked and playing a musical instrument whenever Romulus got into a fit. I know this is supposed to be the workings of the crazy man but it just didn't work. I felt it was too weird and in turn took away from the experience instead of drawing me closer in, which is what The Cell did.
George Dawes Green adapted the film from his own novel that, apparently, is a worldwide cult favorite. Green's screenplay is not badly written but it is poorly paced and never lets the audience get any closer which is a shame because it could've been something.
As for the acting, Jackson comes out of this with what is the best Caveman could offer the audience, a performance that if not for a mediocre screenplay and very little notice, might've landed him a Golden Globe nod or even one for an Oscar. The others are just left in the dust trails of his madness. Feore, Ellis and even Breakfast brat Anthony Michael Hall, do a good job and keep the film from becoming a total mess.
The Caveman's Valentine is a messed up film that tries t dwell into the mind of a psychotic mad man who believes the world is after him, but all of it gets tiring very quickly and rather than being thrown into his world we, the audience, are forced to merely watch it. Despite all the efforts from Jackson and a good supporting cast, Jackson's pet project (which by the looks of the number of producers took a lot to make it a reality) fails to deliver the goods and really missed a good opportunity for a classic film that will stand the test of time.
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