Review of A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III (2013) by Sean Michael S — 11 Aug 2013

A Glimpse Inside The Mind of Charles Swan III is the perfect example of a promising premise gone awry. At first glimpse, any art house fan would pop an excited grin at the names Coppola, Murray, Schwartzman, and a possible comeback role for the lovingly hate-able Sheen.

Coppola - one of the many that make up the famous filmmaking Coppola family - visibly takes his tenure with Wes Anderson to heart and screen; the result being an awkwardly-artistic yet uninterestingly self aware expansion to the iconic look Roman brought to the table while he was the assistant director of The Life Aquatic (2004).

Though at times the film accomplishes somewhat visually, the screenplay suffers without the charm of Coppola's writing counterpart - once again - Wes Anderson. Sadly, the glimpse we're given into the mind of Charles Swan III is not compelling in any rendition of the word.

We're not given a character who exists on the hate/love spectrum. We're given a shmuck who only simply exists. To use The Life Aquatic as a further example, Bill Murray plays a constantly bland character who purposefully throws himself into terrible conditions just to have something happen in life.

In "Glimpse", our titular actor gives us a character void of any depth. We see nothing. We are given nothing. There is so much painful nothingness in Sheen's performance that almost every promising aspect of the film is nullified - even with the help of the unswayable Murray.

All in all, if you are interested in the negative side to flop art, give this film a try. But, as films on the shorter side go, you just might just find yourself 'glimpsing' a little too long.

Viewer beware.