Cast: Willem Dafoe, Edmund Donovan, Greta Lee Review by Carol Allen
When off duty he hangs out with his mates around the pool table in the local bar. What they don’t know is that in his youth, Ed was a poet. Then one day his is accosted by an enthusiastic young admirer Meyers (Edmund Donovan), who has found a copy of the now long forgotten volume of Ed’s youthful poems and thinks it i brilliant. Meyers draws Ed into his group of keen young poetry lovers, who all fete him as a forgotten genius.
The group’s only woman, the exotic, seductive part time actress Gloria (Greta Lee), appears to be particularly taken with him. She takes him to a bar where she performs to an audience of largely older men a version of the Brecht/Weill song “Surabaya Johnny” to rival Ute Lemper, Marianne Faithfull and even the great Lotte Lenya. Ed is flattered by her attention and that of the group. But we the audience are on tenterhooks with fear that it is all going to come tumbling down, that the young people will drop him and leave Ed disenchanted.
Dafoe is sensationally good in the role. His brilliantly expressive face shows us his changing thoughts – wariness and then joy when he realises these young people really do like and respect his youthful writings, and a delightful initial disbelief followed by enjoyment of the lovely Gloria’s overtures.
The film evokes the artsy side of contemporary New York while at the same time reminding us perhaps of the more romantic and bohemian Greenwich village past of Ed’s younger days, while Dafoe himself is nothing short of brilliant.
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