lordnimbo
I could have sworn that I had already written a review of this, my favorite Hal Hartley film, but apparently have not.I first watched the film when it was broadcast on the New York PBS station in the early 1990's, and had recorded it (using the high-tech method of the time, with a VCR). When I initiated my hosting of "Weird Movie Night" as a recurring event for my friends and coworkers, 'this' was the first film shown. Like myself, most of the viewers were shocked, having never seen anything like it before. A film where the dialog is as much of the effect as the visual portion. Some of the viewers writhed and yelled out in pain, others laughed at specific scenes (I always laugh at the parts when "Stu the bus driver", I mean 'the sheriff' talks about his relationship issues).I feel that this is Hal's most 'intelligent' film, with the scenes, script, and background music all syncing up perfectly. It is not a film to watch just to let your mind 'blank' and be fed without question, but makes 'you' think and analyze what you're watching. If that's not the viewing experience you're looking for, one can always rent/download "Die Hard 3".For those who feel that the film is 'unreal' regarding the character portrayals, I'd counter that they are 'more real' than those shown in the standard Hollywood-released films, which either 'smooth out' their character's personalities, or push them to the extreme. This film doesn't try to make the characters or their interactions 'perfect', but shows them as they are, and what occurs when different personalities are placed together. Some reviewers state that the film had no meaning or resolution, but I find it (at least at the end) to be very obvious. So I don't spoil it for those who haven't viewed the film yet, or figured out the ending, I'll just suggest that you look at the older brother's coat and think about what 'he' is about to do, just before his final decision.If you are a fan of Hal Hartley, and want to raise your children with an appreciation of his type/genre of film, obtain the 2 DVD sets of "The Adventures of Pete and Pete" (seasons 1 and 2) which were filmed around the same time period as "Simple Men", and have at least 2 actors from the film in at least 1 episode (not difficult to pick them out).
carlmr
I can't imagine how people can rate this movie so high. To start with the acting is bad, I don't know where they got these actors or if it was the directors will to make them act this way, but most soap opera actors seem to have more talent than these guys. Secondly the dialog is annoying or sometimes even funny because of the nonsense the people are talking. Yet the worst thing of all is that this movie is "artistic" in the sense that if it weren't almost 2 hours long you'd believe it was written by a high school movie club. In my opinion this movie is a pure waste of time, but see for yourself. If you watch it, try not to make the same mistake as me and hope it will get better after the first ten minutes...
Brian Ellis
Boy, was I looking forward to this film. Hal Hartley was returning with most of the cast of "The Unbelievable Truth" with what sounded like an even better film. A couple of criminals go searching for their father, a former pro baseball shortstop turned anarchist. Well, all I got was boring dialogue and lots of it. And to me the impression was given that Hartley was trying to outdo himself on the screenplay but all that came out was a lot of pretension. Then to jazz up the film, throw in a lot of quirkiness which really doesn't make any sense: dancing to Sonic Youth's "Kool Thing" (hey, look at how cool my taste in music is), the guitar playing and the depressed sheriff bit. This film was definitely not one of Hartley's better moments. I have since seen, "Amateur", which is much better, so hopefully, this was just an aberration.
