Factotum Details

[Highly rated reviewer]

hip

After a luxurious and extravagant feast at the fabulously exclusive west end luncheonette ‘pizza hut’, I chipped down to the Curzon Soho to check out the adaptation of ‘Factotum’ a book by solitary poet laureate of skid row Charles Bukowski. It’s basically the story of an almost homelessly broke alcoholic writer drinking his way through a series of horrible jobs and grimy romances.

It was cracking.

Matt Dillon made an excellent Hank Chinaski, despite the potential for the character to be portrayed as either pitiful or loathsome, he brought a genuine warmth to the role. He moved and sounded exactly the way I imagined he should. He had Chinaski's world-weary monologue, and exasperated lumbering shuffle down. The only criticism that could realistically be made is that Dillon is just too attractive to be Chinaski (despite Dillon bulking up and looking as shabby and browbeaten as possible), but I think that the quality of his performance negates this issue (some of the flats he lives in don’t quite look sh*tty enough either, but f**k it). The actresses performing the roles of the various bar wenches that our louche Lothario picks up are also superb; Lili Taylor’s twitchily desperate Jan, and Marisa Tomei’s boozy gold digger living off of a slimy old man are both portrayed very convincingly.

Also on hand are a rotten chorus of gamblers, bums, agitated bosses, and sleazy b*stards. As a portrayal of grinding monotony and near poverty some may find this slow and depressing, but I found it funny, real, and engaging.

After the film I immediately nabbed a copy of post office.

It's not meant to have explosions and car chases...

A fine introduction to the works of Bukowski. The film is meant to be languid, as it chronicles Matt Dillon as Henry Chinanski's (ie Bukowski's) attempts to scrape together money by scams and factotum style jobs whilst watching his unstable relationships with the women around him. Ultimately he loves his writing but needs the money and drink more than emotional support. There are plenty of choice quotes from Bukowski novels. Those who gave the films bad reviews perhaps don't get that it is supposed to be about the underside of American life with its tales of cheap accomodation, alcoholism and dead-end jobs and isn't supposed to be full of sexy characters, explosions or car chases.