Movie: Levity
Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Morgan Freeman, Holly Hunter,
Kirsten Dunst
Written and Directed by Ed Solomon; Music by Marc Oliver Everett
(Sony Classics)
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes

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The word levity usually implies a lightly humorous atmosphere. Ed Solomon's movie instead dwells on an incredibly sad ex-con, Emmanuel (Billy Bob Thorton), who is seeking atonement for the murder he committed 20 years ago. Levity instead becomes a metaphor for redemption, to reverse the terrible gravity of past sins.

All through his incarceration Emmanuel has been fixated on a picture of Abner, the boy he killed, which he hangs on his wall like some would a picture of Jesus. He even imagines visits from the boy. Upon his release Emmanuel wants forgiveness most from his victim's sister, Adele (Holly Hunter). He goes to the city where she lives, but at first he cannot muster the courage to talk to her.

After answering a mysterious call at a pay phone, our seeker gets caught up in a hole-in-the-wall ministry run by Miles (Morgan Freeman). Miles puts Emmanuel to work running a parking lot for the dank little rave club next door. There he meets Sofia (Dunst), who spends her nights at the club partying herself into oblivion. Though he loathes her self destructive ways, Emmanuel still helps her find her way home, and more than once. Eventually he starts talking to Adele and also helps her out when her troubled son is shot in a conflict of his own.

Thornton plays Emmanuel with a haunted conflictedness that borders on the catatonic. Far more interesting is Miles, who at times seems clairvoyant and at other times seems to have his own set of inner demons. Miles is very manipulative and plays Emmanuel like a fiddle, making sure that he helps out counseling a group of neighborhood youths hanging out at the mission. Emmanuel never becomes a great beacon of light, but he finds himself making contact with others in spite of his reclusiveness.

Levity is a pensive allegory that never gets too ambitious, yet is surprisingly complex. Shot in the alleyways of wintry Toronto, and aided greatly on the soundtrack by Marc Oliver Everett (also known as "E" of the Eels), director Ed Solomon makes sure you can feel the existential cold of his characters, but at the same time there is a sly Biblical undertone, especially in the relationship of Miles and Emmanuel. By the end Solomon makes it clear that redemption, that ultimate levity we all seek, is only found through helping others. And that's certainly a message worth repeating.

The Skinny:
Am I glad I saw the movie? Yes
Would I go to see it again? It's not an exciting, rush-right-out-to-see-it feeling but yes I'd see it again.

© 2003 - Rusty Pipes