SUNDANCE 2006: factotum

Charles Bukowski was an interesting writer, but that does not mean that he had an interesting life.

FACTOTUM is based on the semi-autobiographical book by the famous writer. Matt Dillon delivers a strong performance as “Henry Chinasky” as does Lily Taylor as Jan. This film is well made. It looks good, the technical aspects are fine, but the story it just not engaging.

This is the story of a man (Henry) who is a drunk and a deadbeat that floats from job to job while attempting to write in the mean time. He has to keep getting new employment because he gets fired within the first few days (or hours) of work. He drinks pretty much all of the time, smokes like a chimney, and treats everyone like shit. He is not a good person and not someone that I really wanted to follow around for two hours. Never once did I feel for him or want him to succeed.

I am sure that there are people that will like this movie for the reasons that I did not. It is just not my type of film.