Movies

Ed Harris gives it his all and succeeds here, in his (fine) directorial effort. He portrays 40's and 50's painter Jackson Pollock, a man who drank too much, was often crazy about many things, but was a magnificent painter (depending on what you like). Marcia Gay Harden also stars as Lee Krasner, Pollock's guidance into the benign and all. Both Harris and Harden are exqusite here, earning well deserved Oscar nominations (Harris I think would win if it wasn't for Tom Hanks performance), with not much insight going into the method to Pollock's madness, but just his design, which is good in avoiding chiches. Painting scenes are some of the best scenes of last year. A

Ed Harris has taken the biopic to a new level. Although the skeleton of the film is no more than the troubled life of an alcoholic struggling with fame, the power of the acting and sequence of the film take it a step further. The relationship between Krasner and Pollock mirrors that of Stanley and Stella Kowalski but Krasner is a much stronger character and Marcia Gay Harden more than deserved the oscar she received for the part. The only part that concerned me was the explanation Harris chose to show Pollock's progression to his drip paintings. The arbitrariness of the "revelation" seems stretched to me and suggests that it is actually known how Pollock made that movement. All in all, the movie is excellent and worth seeing.Just be careful - I cringed every time he got into a car...

"Pollock" suffers the fate of many a biopic about famous artists. It makes the mistake of thinking that people who produce interesting art are by extension going to be interesting themselves, and they're so frequently not. Usually, they're messed up, but in the same old tired ways in which everyone else is messed up, and I leave a film like "Pollock" wishing I had just looked at some Jackson Pollock paintings instead of spending time in the man's head.But all that criticism aside, "Pollock" is a fairly accomplished film, and it's clear that director/star Ed Harris cared strongly about his subject. His performance is good, but by definition one-note and a bit obtuse, because Pollock himself was apparently those things. It's Marcia Gay Harden, in the obligatory and thankless suffering consort role that all biopics have, who gives the most impressive performance.Grade: B