Naturally, I was anticipating this indie, because I love it when the good old guys take on odd and crazy roles nowadays - no sarcasm whatsoever. It was concerning to see the value of metascore and user reviews, but, nevertheless, I found "The Fanatic" to be quite alright. Let me elaborate.
I have to say I believe that my 6/10 is stemming out partially from a purely subjective viewpoint - objectively it's probably barely average. What I got from "The Fanatic" was good and pulpy fun, offering us nothing new or original plot-wise, but moving at a steady pace and using Travolta as its main attraction. Mad props to John Travolta, the role of a above 40 years old mentally challenged hardcore horror fan & fanatic memorabilia collector was filled from bottom up with Travolta attacking the role with a sure hand. Like, sue me, but I thought it's a great, truly effortful performance. The fanatic making us the fanatics out here. All jokes aside, it was Travoltas performance that kept this movie above the water & that's arguably a fact. From a technical standpoint "The Fanatic" doesn't excel much, but in no way it's below average regarding the cinematography & editing. To be honest, stylistically there were a few cool elements, like the occasional time-lapse drawings with the sharp violin original score pieces. The plot is pretty straight forward & gets wobbly towards the end, where I saw the reason for why a lot of people called out the director for hating mentally challenged people. I'm pretty sure those accusations are not correct. While the ending is hard to decipher, translate the point of it (if there's any), I don't feel like it's a completely tasteless ending. It's different, which is what we, the audience, ask a lot for.
To sum it up, "The Fanatic" is miles form masterpiece, but it's a solid entertainment with it's emotional or extremely awkward (in a good way) moments, and, most of all, with John Travolta who's doing the best he can. My rating: 6/10.
