Review of Arthur Newman (2012) by Cameron J — 24 Dec 2013

If you don't have a life, get someone else's.

Good Film! This is both a downer movie with two unhappy leads trying to survive their lives and a feel-good movie about people who find something in each other to survive. It's not quite a romance that develops, but there is a kind of loving co-dependence. It's meant to be deeper and more moving than it is mostly a issue of the writing again but you get the drift and it works overall. In the end, at the end, you wish so much it had been more than it was. It has so many interesting qualities that don't get pulled out, the surprising convergence in the plot, the game of taking on identities, the psychological depth of being who you are and accepting that. I felt let down by what did happen. The solutions are a bit obvious and almost cheap, depending on formulas seen before. Which is too bad because the set-up and the actors are worth more than that.

Wallace Avery hates his job. His ex-wife and son hate him, and he's blown his one shot at living his dream. Not wanting to face all this, he stages his own death and buys himself a new identity as Arthur Newman. However, Arthur's road trip towards anew life is interrupted by the arrival of the beautiful but fragile Mike, who is also trying to leave her past behind. Drawn to one another, these two damaged souls begin to connect as they break into empty homes and take on the identities of the absent owners: elderly newlyweds, a high-roller and his Russian lady, among others. Through this process, Arthur and Mike discover that what they love most about each other are the identities they left at home, and their real journey, that of healing, begins.