Sundance: Factotum
Tuesday morning, January 24, 2006. Definition of factotum: "An employee or assistant who serves in a wide range of capacities," or, in other words, someone who holds a lot of jobs. Based on the book Factotum by Charles Bukowski, the film stars Matt Dillon as Henry Chinaski, an alcoholic writer who follows the Beatnik ethos of life.
The film follows classic black comedy routines in tracing Chinaski’s life through a series of deadend jobs, a pair of relationships (featuring Lili Taylor and former Oscar winner Marisa Tomei), and countless cigarettes and shots of scotch. As an audience member, I couldn’t help but laugh at the pathetic means at which he lumbers through life, making one obviously bad decision after another. In one scene he applies for a job at a pickle factory because, he says, pickles, "remind me of my grandmother." In another scene he fills out an application at a local newspaper office while attempting to fend off a merciless bout of crabs. The comedic highlight of the film occurs when he and a coworker go on a winning spree at the local horse track, though to get to the track they must cut out of work at a bicycle repair shop five minutes early and drive like Batman through Gotham to arrive at the betting booth on time.
Factotum certainly followed the "dark" theme at this year’s festival. Though I’ve laughed out loud a few times upon recalling a few of the scenes, overall I found the movie to trudge on a bit too long. Matt Dillon delivered a likeable if uninspired performance in the role. IFC found something to like about the film, however, acquiring North American distribution rights for a bit of a song. No doubt there are enough English PhDs with Bukowski obsessions out there to go see the film at the local college arthouse and make something of ol’ Henry Chinaski after all.
