American Splendor Review
by Robin Clifford (robin AT reelingreviews DOT com)August 27th, 2003
"American Splendor"
In 1976 Cleveland native and Veterans Administration file clerk Harvey Pekar conceived a unique idea - create a comic book not about super heroes and monsters from outer space but about the average schmuck in a working class world. To Harvey's surprise, his comic is a cult favorite as he tells it as he sees it in "American Splendor."
Filmmakers Shari Springer Berman And Robert Pulcini base their story on the life and work of Harvey Pekar and do so with an unusual mix of fiction, fantasy, documentary and animation. Paul Giamatti takes the lead for the first time and plays the grumpy observer of life as he goes through yet another divorce because of his sloppy ways and negative attitudes. A fortuitous meeting with counter culture comic genius Robert Crumb (James Urbaniak) sparks an idea in Pekar and he decides that he, too, can create a cult sensation - about himself.
Things start small for Harvey - he can't draw worth a damn - but Crumb reads his stories, likes them and volunteers to do the illustrations for the comic book. The combo of Harvey's everyman stories and the superb animation work of Crumb establish the books, named American Splendor, as an underground hit. Meanwhile, grumpy Harvey continues to work at the VA and develops an initially long-distance relationship with a fan, Joyce Brabner (Hope Davis), who missed an installment of Splendor and contacted Pekar to try to get a copy. They eventually arrange a blind dates and romance, of sorts, ensues. They are soon married - despite Harvey's up front declaration that he has had a vasectomy.
The following years see Harvey sell his comics to Random house for an anthology, appear several times on the old "Late Night with David Letterman," loses Joyce for a while when she run off to Palestine to research war zone kids. He also has a bout with cancer and adopts the daughter of an artist friend. Harvey, for all his doom and gloominess, leads a full life. I have a problem with the structure of "American Splendor" as it moves from present day narration by the real Harvey, often on camera, not just voice over. The abrupt shifts from these modern day segues with real Harvey and real Joyce to the fictional story that span's the comic author's life as a child growing up in Cleveland, his career in civil service, the creation of Splendor, his marriage to Joyce, battling cancer and raising a child. The transitions become more difficult when the 'makers include the real appearances on Letterman. While Giamatti does and excellent job in portraying Pekar, the sudden shift from fiction to actual Letterman shows took me out of the flow of Harvey's life story.
One clever aspect of "Splendor" is the introduction of the cartoon Harvey as drawn by Crumb and other comic artist who did the illustrations and depictions of Harvey. In one scene, when Joyce is waiting to meet Harvey for the first time, she looks around the train station waiting room and imagines the various cartoon Pekars - the stinky slob, the sensitive handsome guy and Harvey as he really is. It is one of the best scenes in the movie.
Fortunately, the performances by the two leads are exemplary and deserve the critical notice being lauded upon the film. I have always liked Giamatti (he's a scream in "Big Fat Liar) and he really holds center stage when given the chance. Hope Davis is on a roll with her fine performances in "About Schmidt," "The Secret Lives of Dentists" and, now, in "Splendor." Her pragmatic portrayal as Joyce helps to temper the edginess of Harvey. The actress is developing an outstanding body of work.
"American Splendor" could have been better if it didn't try to be too many things and gave the stars more screen time and the real Harvey a lot less. It is a solid, entertaining and imaginative work and shows us the life of an unusual character. I give it a B+.
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