Grade: D+ | Genre: Independent Drama Summary: While I'm not ready to slap this with the label as being a 'bad film,' it doesn't have much point. It's a slice of life piece featuring a life not terribly interesting, which unfortunately seems to be Matt Dillon's specialty these days. In a recent visit to Barcelona with my babelicious girlfriend, we were seeking a brief reprieve from history's engine and magnificent modernist architectural works. It was decided a choice piece of American cinema could definitely fill this craving. The problem was not stumbling over one offensive theatre after another busy dubbing box office blockbusters like the Da Vinci Code into Spanish. Have these Spaniards not heard of subtitles? I have to say that watching Clueless dubbed on late night TV was simply priceless. "Rollin' with the Homies." Here is a thought. Why not have special headphones/glasses at the theatre so the film can always run in its original format, allowing you can plug in the appropriate dubbing/subtitles as you see fit? After bouncing around town to three different theatres, we ended up on the Passeig de Gracia that screamed cool with its trendy shops and complete absence of tourist flavor. It also housed two of the cities indie cinema houses, featuring the much sought after VOSE (Version Original Subtitulada en Espanol). After narrowing a dozen foreign films down to two US imports, we settled on Factotum with Matt Dillon and Lili Taylor (Six Feet Under).

The film revolves around the life of Hank (Matt Dillon), an alcoholic, professional job loser who seems to breeze through life, descending ever closer to the gutter with each passing day. His loser aura seems to attract like souls. Jan (Lili Taylor) is a fellow drain circular who attaches to Hank as long as he is filled to the gills with liquor and without a penny to his name. We see Hank file through a litany of hiring managers, taking on disposable jobs from packing break shoes into boxes to feather dusting ornate lobby statues. It's all an elaborate ruse allowing him to feed his first love of writing. Each week, he whittles away a short story, packaging it off to a journal he respects in hope of securing publication. Each week, his mailbox sits lonely and empty.

Factotum Starring: Matt Dillon, Lili Taylor, Fisher Stevens & Marisa Tomei Director: Bent Hamer View the Trailer (Quicktime) Related Articles Crash Six Feet Under: Season 5 Finale

Really that's all the film had to offer. Dillon's deadpan delivery provided welcome spats of laughter throughout. The problem is the remainder of the film presents this mildly likable character that refuses to even glance towards the light of redemption. He wallows in his addiction, chronicling the stories of a life lived by someone else, never ponying up his chips to play his own hand. The utter randomness and unsympathetic protagonist wears on your nerves. Even when you think something is going to happen, like perhaps when Marisa Tomei floats into the picture as a wealthy drunk plaything, nothing does. Life keeps plodding along, devoid of any meaning for Hank until the closing credits bring his story to an end. Factorum author Charles Bukowski is said to have penned this tale a little close to his own reality. Maybe he should have directed his gaze a bit further out into the world.

While I'm not ready to slap this with the label as being a 'bad film,' it doesn't have much point. It's a slice of life piece featuring a life not terribly interesting, which unfortunately seems to be Matt Dillon's specialty these days. Is this the same man who cemented himself in our minds in films like Singles and gritty Drugstore Cowboy? Let's hope his stab at the funny bone with Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson in You, Me and Dupree later this summer proves a more fruitful exercise.

Check Movie Times