Sympathy for Delicious

source: Sympathy for Delicious

...about society, faith, healing industry. great work of a good actor who proofs his director skills, for first time. a film about the other. the appareances, the interests, the fame, the show, the compromises, the gift and its price. at first sigh, one of the most inspired Christian films. in fact, a beautiful pledge for a careful [erspective about life. a curagious film. and, in same measure, an useful one.

at first sigh, a religious movie. out of ordinaries rules of genre. in fact, precise portrait of society. a lot of problems in a honest manner presented. the homeless case, the artistic success, the healing industry, the faith, the miracle, the pain, the love's sense, the need of fame, the good intentions, the God will, each in a special way examined . a film who must see. as good occasion to discover pieces from another works about same problem. for the inspired script and for the good acting. for the questions. for the status of parable of film. for the image about every day reality. for the cold poetry of few scenes. for the silences. more than a good movie, it is an useful one.

Its a kind of a bit sad, love and religious story about Delicious D. Its a kind of funny and lovely story though that we cant find everyday in the Cinema.Mark Ruffalo is a genius. I knew always there is something in this guy since I have seen the movie with Jenifer Gardner in 13 going on 30. The guy is fantastic. He has got humor and make sense with it. Very clever and smart.A beautiful story with some necessary sad things included. At the beginning it starts as an ordinary movie but then after few minutes I have realized that the camera works the cuts and views are just perfect for a socio-photo shooting. It brings you closer the person so close you could almost feel his sweat. About the story line it is about a former DJ guy who is now in wheelchair and homeless. The only one who cares for him is his social worker priest friend who gives food for the homeless on the streets. The life is rude and sad at this point until they find out the wheelchair guy can heal others only with his own hands. So the story begins...I just loved it. Actually I am loving it because I am writing this review and I still did not finished watching it.

"Listen please, you don't know what you did, you got the healing touch." After being shown the power of faith healing, Delicious decides to use what he has learned to become a world famous DJ. When fate steps in and allows him to heal everyone's problems but his own he must decide if he will use his gift for someone else. This is not a bad movie at all. Without being in your face with it, this is a fairly religious movie. This also presents a great question. If you had the power to help everyone but yourself could you do it or would you be to jealous? Great acting by everyone makes this an enjoyable movie to watch. Orlando Bloom is great in a wide departure from what he usually does. The fact that the lead actor is actually paralyzed gives his performance a dimension that would be lacking if the actor was only pretending. This is a pretty slow moving movie, but very much worth watching. Overall, a very good movie filled with great acting. This is another movie you must be in the mood for though. I liked it. I give it a B-. Would I watch again? - I don't think I would

Given the promising cast and the fact that this is a film directed by Mark Ruffalo, I was curious about 'Sympathy for Delicious'. Of course, there are many actor-turned-director films that turned out to be not great, like Johnny Depp's 'The Brave' and 'Sympathy for Delicious' disappoints. To start, the story failed to engage me. It tries to combine elements of spirituality and fantasy into a current day world of drugs, rock and roll and poverty but it simply does not work. The title character is not even remotely likable. Now movies with a hateful lead character could only work if there's something about them or their world that manages to draw the viewer in and this is obviously lacking here. Another thing that's missing here is humour. The supporting cast attempts to provide some but that's not enough. Christopher Thornton is passable at best and he's easily overshadowed by his co-stars especially Linney, Bloom, Lewis and Ruffalo. I doubt Thornton himself is too blame since the character itself is so one-dimensional. Laura Linney is there only in several small sequences but she provides awesome comic relief. Juliette Lewis is very good but she seems to get typecast. Ruffalo is terrific as the priest but if he does continue to direct hope he picks a more interesting subject.

Of the 11 films and doc's I viewed, Sympathy for Delicious was my absolute favorite. Mark and Chris did a fantastic job writing, acting and directing. Their personal passion and painful experiences propelled the film and gave it an intense and awarding message of restoration and hope, one could not ask for more. I encourage everyone to view the Sundance trailer to hear Mark and Chris discuss their endeavors of this film, watch their camaraderie and have a glimpse of how precious they are (I think they are beautiful people; if you get a chance to hear them speak do so). The idea of a paralyzed man being able to heal everyone except himself is unique and intriguing. The trial scene was brilliant giving the audience an extra twist. Im not sure if Mark and Chris purposed any of the following ideas: 1) consequences come to those who grossly misuse their God-given gift 2)the grace that blanketed D during his "rebellious" and hateful actions 3) hardship/consequences help one to wake up to reality 4)blessings follow an unselfish giver. Great movie!! FYI...Breasts and cursing are in film so children should probably not watch.

Sympathy For Delicious has a terrific cast, more than one of the supporting cast are favorites of mine. So I was very disappointed when I was finding myself bored only a few minutes in. In my opinion there are a lot of problems with this film, for starters I think the plot is absolutely ridiculous, secondly the protagonist of the story is one of the most unlikable characters I have ever come across, and finally I think the story would have been better if it stayed in one direction, this us just my personal opinion, I know a lot of people enjoyed this movie but it just wasn't for me. The supporting cast is spectacular, particularly Ruffalo and Lewis, unfortunately for Lewis her role is very underused, she has her scene towards the end but her character was the most interesting so it's a shame that she wasn't utilized more. Orlando Bloom exudes arrogance perfectly, and it's nice to see Laura Linney let her hair down and get feisty in a mean way, (in my opinion she can do no wrong). Mark Ruffalo manages to bring his charm and charisma to the role of a priest who just wants to do right by everyone. I think the production of Sympathy For Delicious is top notch I just think the direction let it down, In saying that though I do still look forward to seeing what Mr Ruffalo does next. All in all for me though it was forgetful and unfulfilling.

SYMPATHY FOR DELICIOUS is well worth watching in theaters, on demand for television, or DVD. Though the film is out and available at present, this ad for a movie poster is the only opportunity to attract attention to an excellent movie and encourage people to watch for it. The story addresses several tough issues - the plight of the homeless on skid row, the lack of support for disabled persons, the arena of faith healing, and the at times crumbling dreams and realities of rock bands. The film was written by Christopher Thornton who suffered spinal cord injury in 1992 resulting in his being a paraplegic confined to a wheelchair: he has over come his disability by becoming a much lauded stage actor (the first to play Hamlet in a wheelchair, etc): Thornton also stars in this film and his performance introduces an actor of exceptional virtuosity. Mark Ruffalo directs his first film and also stars as one of the lead characters. 'Delicious' Dean O'Dwyer (Christopher Thornton) is a DJ on the rise in Los Angeles whose career is devastated by a motorcycle accident leaving him confined to a wheelchair, living in a car on skid row. He is part of the people cared for by Father Joe Roselli (Mark Ruffalo) who recognizes a life worth saving and turns his attention to Dean, attempting to restore his ability to walk by taking him to a faith healing revival lead by Healer (John Carroll Lynch). Though Dean is not healed himself he does happen to touch one of his fellow skid row dwellers who is subsequently miraculously healed. One of Dean's friends, Rene (Noah Emmerich) discovers Dean's powers and pleads with him to heal fellow paraplegic Rene. Dean does not believe in his power of faith healing (he is frustrated that he cannot heal himself!) and continues to search for a place where he can return to being a performing DJ. Dean meets bass player Ariel Lee (Juliette Lewis, in a stunning star turn) who is convinced Dean should join a forming band composed of The Stain (Orlando Bloom), Ariel, and Oogie (Dov Tiefenbach). While the rasty band recognizes Dean's talent as a possible addition to the band, the band's PR person Nina Hogue (Laura Linney) will have none of it. it is only when Dean's healing powers surface that the band - and Nina - want him to give them an image that will make them famous. Dean is discouraged by Father Joe, pleading with him to remain at skid row performing his healing so that Father Joe will increase donations to his charity care house. Conflicts arise, incidents occur with the band and at skid row and Dean's place in all of this new fame is altered: money seems to be the driver that destroys many people and gets in the way of the true value of Dean's healing gift. The film is strong on many levels - especially the acting (except for Orlando Bloom who overwhelms the story in the wrong way) - and as a first film to be directed by the very gifted Mark Ruffalo it holds promise of works to come. Christopher Thornton is not only a fine writer and actor, but his screen presence i so powerful that it is likely he will become as major a star on film as he is on stage. Grady Harp

I saw a screening of this movie at Sundance 2010. I was very impressed with Mark Ruffalo's directorial debut. I told him afterward that it seemed effortless. He laughed and said it was anything but. Sometimes with first-time directors (though he's had some TV directing experience), there are jarring points that make you realize you're watching a debut. But there were no such moments for me with this movie. Christopher Thornton, who also wrote the script, was great. He explained after the screening that he developed this with Ruffalo after Thornton complained that there are no good roles for paraplegics. Though I was told beforehand to expect a dark film, it really has more moments of levity, which Ruffalo said was intentional. It's a film worth seeing!