Director David Gordon Green, who gave us such such comedies as "Pineapple Express," "Your Highness," and "The Sitter" returned to a story that focuses more on the simplistic personal humanistic aspect of life, MANGLEHORN reminds us that David Gordon Green also gave us "Undertow" and "Prince Avalanche." Starring the great Al Pacino playing an old exhausted, slouching, and very reclusive Texas key-maker named A.J. Manglehorn, who spends his days helping people who are locked out of their car or apartment, and taking care of his cat. And in between, he often visits a bank teller named Dawn (Holly Hunter) who's interested in Mangelhorn but he can't seem to get over the heartbreak from the woman he loved and lost so many years ago.
I guess the older you'll get, the lonelier you become in movies like "About Schmidt" and MANGLEHORN. So you either walk around and talk to people or simply be rude to every one you encounter by giving honest advice to them even if it's the last thing they actually want to hear. You really feel for Al Pacino's character in this film, but you don't get the complete picture as to why really he can't get over his past love, you get an idea of it, you can sense his heartache, but not the complete picture. The script is solid but nothing extraordinary, certainly nothing as extraordinary as Pacino's past work, it's as though he took this job just to show his audience and his fans that on the inside, the Oscar winner is now nothing but an exhausted old man and it worked, there were times when I was watching MANGLEHORN when I felt worried that any minute, Pacino could fall and die.
One thing that strikes a chord with me is the way MANGLEHORN deals with the father son drama, performed by Al Pacino and Chris Messina playing his son who feels that his father was never there for him but the father insists that he was always there and he even told him that the life or the path he chose was the wrong one, but clearly the son just wanted to be bigger and better than the other kids that his father seems to compare him with. It's your classic father - son dilemma, one that many can relate to. All the while, Manglehorn tries to figure out where did he go wrong with his past relationship, he wonders where he went wrong with his son.
MANGLEHORN is essentially a one-man show by Al Pacino, and you won't be as entertained as you are more enlightened by his arc. It's a man whose ambition is behind him, he's just trying to get by one day at a time, doing what he loves and conversing with others. A simple drama, one that could easily be forgotten the next day.
I guess the older you'll get, the lonelier you become in movies like "About Schmidt" and MANGLEHORN. So you either walk around and talk to people or simply be rude to every one you encounter by giving honest advice to them even if it's the last thing they actually want to hear. You really feel for Al Pacino's character in this film, but you don't get the complete picture as to why really he can't get over his past love, you get an idea of it, you can sense his heartache, but not the complete picture. The script is solid but nothing extraordinary, certainly nothing as extraordinary as Pacino's past work, it's as though he took this job just to show his audience and his fans that on the inside, the Oscar winner is now nothing but an exhausted old man and it worked, there were times when I was watching MANGLEHORN when I felt worried that any minute, Pacino could fall and die.
One thing that strikes a chord with me is the way MANGLEHORN deals with the father son drama, performed by Al Pacino and Chris Messina playing his son who feels that his father was never there for him but the father insists that he was always there and he even told him that the life or the path he chose was the wrong one, but clearly the son just wanted to be bigger and better than the other kids that his father seems to compare him with. It's your classic father - son dilemma, one that many can relate to. All the while, Manglehorn tries to figure out where did he go wrong with his past relationship, he wonders where he went wrong with his son.
MANGLEHORN is essentially a one-man show by Al Pacino, and you won't be as entertained as you are more enlightened by his arc. It's a man whose ambition is behind him, he's just trying to get by one day at a time, doing what he loves and conversing with others. A simple drama, one that could easily be forgotten the next day.