Manglehorn – Film Review by Eveleen Coyle

Director: David Gordon Green

Screenplay: Paul Logan

Cast: Al Pacino, Holly Hunter, Harmony Korine, Chris Messina, Natalie Wilemon, Luis Olmeda, Edrick Browne and Marisa Varela.

Oh dear. You want to love anything Al Pacino is in, but this one is a challenge on so many fronts – the storyline, the script, the cinematography.

Pacino is of course marvellous in the role of the bolshy, difficult and lonely Manglehorn, an ageing locksmith in a small town in Texas who dotes on his cat and his granddaughter, who can take or leave his estranged son Jacob (Chris Messina), and spends a lot of time writing letters to a long lost love, knowing those letters will be returned day on day.

Day on day, Manglehorn arrives home, gets his mail from his mailbox where he watched bees set up a hive. He greets his cat before disappearing into a locked room, re-emerging to feed the beloved cat and himself before sitting down to drink and brood over his chaotic life. There is lot of brooding.

He is at his gentlest with his granddaughter. He plays and chats and laughs with her but when he meets his son Jacob (the child’s father) for a conciliatory lunch, he is sour and difficult. In spite of this, Jacob a slick and edgy financier turns to his father for help when he gets into financial difficulties. His father seems to rather enjoy rejecting him.

Despite all this, Manglehorn strikes up a relationship with gentle bank teller Dawn, beautifully played by Holly Hunter, and their first date provides one of the best scenes in this film. Manglehorn turns up curmudgeonly, moaning about the cost before they even eat yet Dawn continues to be kind, to be fun, telling Manglehorn how she enjoys his company and about the small things that she loves about everyday life, like having a bath. But when she invites Manglehorn to share a bath with her, he switches to cruel mode, telling her in detail about the woman he loved and lost and is still obsessed with. Holly Hunter is superb – quietly astonished, terribly hurt but dignified in the face of his emotional assault before she stands up and walks away.

Director and producer David Gordon Green is the director teen comedy Pineapple Express and is clearly more comfortable with tales in that genre. Al Pacino is pitch perfect in his role and it must be one of Holly Hunter’s finest performances. Just what made them choose this sad script? At least it doesn’t have a gooey ending, let’s give it that.