The Caveman's Valentine

I shall not review the story. I've read all the submitted reviews. I am an MD and as such see this picture from a different standpoint than that of a movie-goer. I think it is the best acting from the standpoint of being INSIDE of a paranoid schiz I'm aware of because you can see and feel the confusion. If you are confused by the jumping around so too is the poor psycotic. His superior mentality is used as a pianist as well as a caring person for others. He fights to maintain reality but "where is it" or "which is it?" Of course there is no clearing up at the end as there seldom is. But that is the beauty of this film. Feel and understand the plight of such a victim? Now maybe see it again.

It's a very nice film with a suspenseful and mysterious plot about an insane homeless man (who once was a talented piano player) which solved by himself a crime scene. The plot starts being very strange and puzzling, because we watch the happenings through the insane guy's mind, and everything seems to be a bit confusing. However, that's the best part of the movie to me! It's mysterious, unexplained, bizarre and has some strange scenes (which pass only inside his mind) of pure delusion, and shot in dark and surreal way. Great cinematography, I must say! The acting is also brilliant, especially by Samuel L. Jackson, who plays the insane guy, ROMULUS LEDBETTER. He's an excellent actor and one more time he proves it, as a great part of this film is just his acting work! The film has a great soundtrack as well! I hadn't heard of this movie so far so it was a very good surprise to me.

"Cavemans Valentine" is one of the best psychological portraits i've ever watched. And i've watched a lot of them, since i love that type of film. Jackson does a excellent part, taking the viewer through the mind and thoughts of a schizophrenic. Never before have i seen an actor play a role, the way Jackson does here. You feel like being able to follow his twisted mindgames, although you sometimes can't be sure what is real and what's not. I like Jackson as an actor before, but now i have to admit, that i've always underestimated him. His performance is just incredible. The way he acts, you feel like every little part of this character is just as real as he is. To all the people out there, who haven't seen this movie: Watch it, or you don't know what excellent acting is!

The reviews are up and down for this one, and it may be because of the psycho scenes. As the first reviewer noted, it does a good job of getting the viewer inside the psycho's head, but if you aren't into strange scenes with psychotic visions, confusing sequences, etc you might find it tedious. These aren't the crisp psycho scene like in The Cell, but more like visions. The plot is good, and the supporting acting is adequate. But watching this nut stumble around trying to catch a crook might be too off the wall for some people. I'd give it a 6.5/10.

I would have to agree with the review of PC Dean. It seems that Hollywood felt that they had to generate a reason to make this film. I have these horrible visions of a production meeting with people trying to figure out how they were going to be able to make a quality film and still dupe the public into going to see it. Then deciding the solution was writing in a half hearted mystery theme. Though I do applaud most of the performances in this film, Jackson shining wonderfully, I get the impression that there wasn't enough effort put into the other characters (scriptwise), just throwing talented actors/actresses into thin air won't suddenly make your characters fly. Overall I liked the movie and applaud it's approaching the subject of mental illness. I just wonder about the attempts at main stream "popularizing" that went along with it.