Six Ways to Sunday

"Six Ways To Sunday" Stratosphere Entertainment cut a rousing trailer for this film. This left my expectations sky high. While a dangerous concept, expectations can also taint your feelings toward a film when it's all said and done. Henry Thomas look alike Norman Reedus stars as a Harry, a simple kid with an unusually touchy feely mother (Deborah Harry) who stumbles into the world of the mob. Becoming rich and dangerous in short amount of time, Harry begins to feel his world closing in around him. Mixing equal doses of "Goodfellas", "Psycho", and maybe "Spanking The Monkey", "Six Ways" is not an easy film to dismiss. Boasting a solid cast of diverse names (Isaac Hayes as a cop, personal fave Elina Lowensohn as the love interest), the film is an eclectic collection of themes. Incest, friendship, trust, and old friends, Director Adam Bernstein crafts a solid film that lingers longer that the average film would. That doesn't necessarily mean the entire film is successful. Adrian Brody makes a hilarious sorta-cameo is a crack smoking white homeboy. Sadly, the film doesn't really know what to do with him. The narrative blatantly falls apart in the final act and the blood is shed in great amounts, something that just isn't needed for success. Debbie Harry is a hoot as the domineering mother. She steals every scene she's in. I also really liked the glum setting of Long Island in the fall.

I see very clearly why this movie might rub people the wrong way. It's a glib, silly film. If you don't buy the concept, you ain't gonna stay with the movie. I stayed with it due to the cast, the story, Ms. Lowensohn, and the slim chance I would hear "Love, Love, Love" by the Feminine Complex(I believe the name of the group) - the song used in the trailer. It makes the film seem better than it probably is.----------- 7

Which.. i am. I really enjoyed this movie. I mean come on people Issac Hayes and Debbie Harry, we're talking Chef and Blondie, how cool is that? It was very messed up in that "Clockwork Orange" kind of way. I'm not sure what to say about it, but... I really liked it.

What a charmer of a flick. Norman Reedus gives an exceptional performance as Harry. Debbie Harry as his mother is appropriately frumpy and chilling (with one amazing transformation scene - you had to see coming!).

Adrien Brody in an early performance looks to be da role mo-dell fo "Da Ali G" show. He's a terrific idiot homeboy here.

Isaac Hayes, Elina Lowensohn, Jerry Adler and the rest of the supporting cast make this a fresh, disturbing "family" drama.

If director Adam Bernstein seems to run out of steam at the very conclusion - that's okay, since the ride is almost always much more interesting than the destination.

See this movie!

Produced by Jonathan Demme and based on the novel PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN DROWNING, SIX WAYS TO Sunday (6WtS) follows the adventures of Harold "Harry" Odum (Norman Reedus), a young man pinned so tightly under his mother's thumb he can barely move. On Harry's road of, er, self-discovery, he evolves (for lack of a better term) from mama's boy to hit man for the local Jewish mob. Even more mind-boggling, his smothering mom is played by an eerily effective Deborah Harry! (Deborah Harry Odum? :-) Although she gets to sing in flashbacks (and Blondie's "Sunday Girl" is used to nice effect in a diner scene. In fact, music is used well in this film overall, especially The Feminine Complex's charmingly Petula Clarkesque "Love Love Love"), for the most part Harry is startlingly different from her Blondie front-woman persona, both physically and personality-wise. Directed by Adam Bernstein, who's gone on to excellent work on RESCUE ME and other edgy TV series, 6WtS boasts a cast as talented as it is eclectic. Norman Reedus manages to be boyish and intense at the same time, as well as looking like the positive result of an eccentric geneticist's attempt to create a hybrid of Ewan McGregor, Leonardo DiCaprio, and a young Gary Sinise. There are also memorable turns by Isaac Hayes as a cop (listen for his rendition of "What A Friend We Have in Mother" during the opening scenes), Jerry Adler (best known in our household as Woody Allen and Diane Keaton's mysterious neighbor Mr. House in MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY) as the Jewish mob's equivalent of the capo di tutti capi, and Elina Löwensohn (NADJA, SCHINDLER'S LIST) as the girl Harry loves, reminding me of a sort of wistful, downtrodden Audrey Hepburn. For my money, the most entertaining scenes belong to Adrien Brody, and not just because I'm a fan of his. Brody channels his inner Ali G as Harry's childhood friend Arnie Finklestein, an inept gangsta wannabe who tries to look and act like a homeboy with hilarious results -- but nobody's laughing when he chickens out and flees the scene during one of Harry's hits... 6WtS isn't for all tastes, but if you like your crime comedies weird, dark and twisted, it's at least worth a rental.

Six Ways To Sunday is billed as a black comedy. That it is, but it is so much more. It is fraught with great characters, situations, and relationships. It is a psychological study that plumbs the depths of a mother/son relationship that effects or determines almost everything that happens in the movie --- good and bad. The relationship is, at the very least, fascinating, but it would be unfair to say more than that. The film tells the story of young man from a depressed area who gets into a life crime. At this point I would like to recognize Mr. Reedus' portrayal of Harry, the naive, gentle, and submissive but simultaneously worldly, aggressive, and violent young man was done deftly and beautifully. A review (Box Office Magazine, I believe) stated that he had the look of Leonardo DiCaprio and the charm of Ewan McGregor --- a dynamite combination that I believe to be true. He could be Hollywood's next big star. The film also sheds light on other human relationships involving love and hate, passion and coldness, and loyalty and betrayal. The film was written and directed by Adam Bernstein. Although there was one situation that I did not find believable which did not detract from the film, Six Ways To Sunday was compelling from beginning to end. A word of caution, the film is deserving of its "R" rating due to some extreme violence and exploring an incestuous relationship. If you do not get a chance to see this film in the theaters, it is well worth renting. Good entertainment. Three plus stars!!!