Review of This Must Be the Place (2011) by Gonzalo M — 23 Nov 2012

This one's a real oddball. Sean Penn plays a former rock star (think Robert Smith from THE CURE), who lives a quiet life in Dublin with his feisty firefighter wife (is there anyone feistier than Frances McDormand) until the death of his father in New York sends his life in an unexpected direction as he sets about looking for a SS War Criminal. With his almost-whispered, ethereal line-readings and goth black wardrobe, Penn looks like something straight out of a Tim Burton film. The gorgeous, precisely framed cinematography here helps hammer that point home as well. Add it all up and you get EDWARD SCISSORHANDS: NAZI HUNTER!

Sounds kinda awful, and it's easy to feel that way when enduring this quirkfest...but somewhere along the way, I started to go with it, and, against my better judgment, it actually kinda moved me....and I'm not sure why. Penn is actually a bit annoying here, playing a fairly stillborn character who barely moves a muscle and doesn't quite feel connected to anyone. The rest of the cast works miracles to build some chemistry here, with McDormand and Judd Hirsch doing a great job of bringing some genuine excitement to the table.

There's quite a bit of setup here in Ireland, where we watch Penn's character trying to fix up a goth fan with a decidedly unhip mall worker, and I suppose the point of it all is to learn to not judge a book by its cover. The film feels equally random at times when Penn confronts Talking Heads frontman David Byrne (playing himself)...but the genuine terror and emotion in that one scene felt real. For me, this strange and deeply felt film is all about finding your place in life and marking those rare moments where you can make a difference in someone else's. For something so deceptively aimless as this, that's not such a bad premise after all.