Factotum (2006)

dir. Bent Hamer
Viewed on: 2007-02-25
Rating: 7

I haven't read the Charles Bukowski novel on which this movie was based (nor any Bukowski, for that matter), so I don't have a basis for comparison there. What I did keep thinking about, though, was The Big Lebowski, and how Matt Dillon's character in Factotum is like a more real (or less absurd) version of the Dude. Both are extraordinarily unambitious L.A. low-lifes, but also, somehow, as extreme examples of losers they are able to reveal the farcical side of life and highlight the loser-ness in everyone they meet.

Anyway, I liked Factotum, and Matt Dillon was excellent, but I can't say I'll be thinking about it a few days from now. It starts out as a fairly hilarious and bleak comic meditation on existence, but eventually seems to lose some of its sense of humor, and in the process, its insightfulness. Or maybe I was just wishing I was watching the Dude instead.