American Splendor Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)August 13th, 2003
AMERICAN SPLENDOR
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When a depressed Cleveland VA Hospital clerk drops papers from the 'deceased' folders he was about to file, he sees paperwork for a man who was born in Cleveland, worked as a file clerk, and died in Cleveland. This small event, combined with having seen his friend Robert Crumb (James Urbaniak, "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde") become a minor celebrity in San Francisco as a cartoonist, inspires Harvey Pekar (Paul Giamatti, "Big Fat Liar") to create his own underground comic book, "American Splendor."
"American Splendor" was heralded with the Grand Jury prize at Sundance and awarded the FIPRESCI Award at Cannes for its innovative melding of fictional representation, reality (Harvey Pekar and his wife Joyce Brabner narrate and comment on the action, sometimes from within the same frame as the actors) and comic book conventions, but essentially the film is about an underachieving drone who has gained certain levels of fame as his loser status has come in and out of fashion. The husband and wife directing team of Robert Pulcini (who appears on screen as Bob the director) and Shari Springer Berman (who is heard off screen as an interviewer) may have taken a unique approach to Pekar's story, but their subject is so generally glum and his world so familiar from the recent "Crumb" and "Ghost World" that it only takes off intermittently.
The film begins with a young Harvey (Daniel Tay) determined to trade his own identity for treats on Halloween. By 1975, he's being dumped by his newly PhD'd wife, unable to communicate with a voice he's been told needs months of rest. Like "Ghost World's" Seymour, Harvey lives in a dingy abode with the records he collects stacked on sway-backed shelves ready to accept any woman who would have him. He begins to write down downtrodden snippets of his life - unwinnable arguments with Mr.Boats (Earl Billings, "Antwoine Fisher") from work, commentary on little old Jewish ladies at the supermarket - and shows them to a visiting Crumb who surprises him by offering to illustrate them. A small cult-level success garners him a letter from fan and comic book store owner Joyce Brabner (Hope Davis, "The Secret Lives of Dentists") who he begs to pay him a visit ('Man, she's got good looking handwriting'). Joyce turns out to be a hypochondriac reformer and Harvey's match - they marry within a week.
Paul Giamatti, who doesn't really resemble Pekar (Christopher Lloyd may have been a better physical match), does a wonderful job playing him nonetheless. Despite Harvey's combative nature (which lost him a long running association with David Letterman in the 1980s), the actor brings poignancy to a man who complains about his wife in her presence and misses her in her absence. In the film's best scene, Pekar runs into an old college classmate, Alice Quinn (Maggie Moore, "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"), at a local bakery. Their conversation is full of 'what might have been' and Giamatti's playing of it adds more depth to the character than we get in any other five scenes combined. He also has a wonderful soliloquy once again ruminating on identity. Against a false background, Giamatti discourses on the other Harvey Pekars he has found in the phone book. The real surprise of the film, though, is Hope Davis, who is utterly hilarious in her blank faced seriousness of purpose. "I can spot a personality disorder a mile away" she proclaims before opening the door to Harvey's buddy Toby Radloff (Judah Friedlander, "Showtime") - "borderline autistic." The joke is, of course, that's she's completely right and Friedlander's performance is validated by Radloff's real presence. (Toby Radloff had brief fame by association when MTV decided to run a series of 'loser' spots.)
The directors ("Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's") and their production designer Thérèse DePrez ("Hedwig and the Angry Inch") introduce the real Harvey sitting almost suspended against a white background - a blank page - surrounded by his things. He answers questions while actors walk off scenes into his space. Later he is joined by wife Joyce and his old Letterman footage is edited in (Giamatti appears in the back stage scenes) to relay that part of his history. Split screen and other comic panel effects are used. Things get most surreal when Giamatti and Hope as Pekar and Brabner travel to L.A. to see a play of "American Splendor" with Pekar and Brabner portrayed by Donal Logue ("The Tao of Steve") and Molly Shannon ("Superstar").
After Joyce gets Harvey through cancer by writing their story in graphic form as "Our Cancer Year" and they adopt the child, Danielle (Madylin Sweeten, TV's "Everybody Loves Raymond"), of that book's illustrator Fred (James McCaffrey, "The Truth About Cats and Dogs") the patched together family are seen celebrating Harvey's retirement from the VA Hospital job he never left. A copy of "Our Movie Year" (which has already been excepted in Entertainment Weekly) is prominently displayed. Harvey Pekar's passing the cup once more for being Harvey Pekar, American Everyman.
B+
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