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Time Out of Mind (2014)
Director: Oren Moverman
Writers: Oren Moverman (screenplay), Jeffrey Caine (story) | 1 more credit »
Cast: Richard Gere, Ben Vereen, Jena Malone
Genre: Indie drama
Time Out of Mind, goes where few films have, into the life and mind of a homeless man on the sprawling sidewalks of New York City. Director Oren Moverman shows us the invisible people who live their lives literally unseen by the masses. The director makes us feel their isolation from main stream society by keeping his camera afar and filming the homeless subject through store windows as patrons in warm buildings sipping their morning coffee look out at the busy streets...and there in the corner unseen is the homeless man.
The homeless man is played by Richard Gere to shockingly surprising perfection.
Richard Gere quickly loses his celebrity persona and becomes this confused homeless man with some type of mental or memory problems, coupled with alcoholism. We experience his confusion as he walks up in a derelict building only to be kicked out, onto the cold streets. It's unconventional film making and those looking for traditional story telling might be frustrated at the deliberate slow pacing of the film.
Kyra Sedgwick has one of the most powerful scenes in the film. She's a 'bag lady' an ex prostitute who for a can of beer spends time with George (Richard Gere) and they end up fornicating on the street under a piece of cardboard. The scene is not graphic, and it doesn't need to be, because it both shows the need for human contact and humiliation that the homeless have to endure.
There's no easy answers here and this is not a feel good film. But I thought it was effective, different and powerful.
+
Time Out of Mind (2014)
Director: Oren Moverman
Writers: Oren Moverman (screenplay), Jeffrey Caine (story) | 1 more credit »
Cast: Richard Gere, Ben Vereen, Jena Malone
Genre: Indie drama
Time Out of Mind, goes where few films have, into the life and mind of a homeless man on the sprawling sidewalks of New York City. Director Oren Moverman shows us the invisible people who live their lives literally unseen by the masses. The director makes us feel their isolation from main stream society by keeping his camera afar and filming the homeless subject through store windows as patrons in warm buildings sipping their morning coffee look out at the busy streets...and there in the corner unseen is the homeless man.
The homeless man is played by Richard Gere to shockingly surprising perfection.
As filming commenced, Richard Gere was worried that he would be recognized on the streets, shattering the illusion of him playing an essentially invisible man. He needn't have worried. Of all the thousands of passers-by that he encountered in the streets, only 2 asked him if he was Richard Gere.
Richard Gere quickly loses his celebrity persona and becomes this confused homeless man with some type of mental or memory problems, coupled with alcoholism. We experience his confusion as he walks up in a derelict building only to be kicked out, onto the cold streets. It's unconventional film making and those looking for traditional story telling might be frustrated at the deliberate slow pacing of the film.
Kyra Sedgwick has one of the most powerful scenes in the film. She's a 'bag lady' an ex prostitute who for a can of beer spends time with George (Richard Gere) and they end up fornicating on the street under a piece of cardboard. The scene is not graphic, and it doesn't need to be, because it both shows the need for human contact and humiliation that the homeless have to endure.
There's no easy answers here and this is not a feel good film. But I thought it was effective, different and powerful.
+