Harmony Korine's latest film "Mister Lonely" is full of pop star impersonators falling in love and Panamanian flying nuns. The premise of the film invites laughter and smells of camp but Korine's script explores the delicate souls of its character, only pausing briefly for humor.

"Mister Lonely" depicts the minds of celebrity impersonators through the lens of the Mexican Michael Jackson played by Diego Luna. On the streets of Paris, Michael showcases his moonwalk during the day while providing some heavy-handed existential thought to the audience and his tape recorder at night. Until he meets the scarred Marilyn Monroe played by Samantha Morton, Michael is confined to street performing in the Parisian heat. The two meet while Michael is moonlighting as a retirement home entertainer that promises that its inhabitants "will live forever!" Marilyn convinces Michael to come with her to an impersonators commune in the Scottish Highlands. The commune's characters include the Three Stooges, an American Pope and a James Dean that tends sheep. Michael is immediately welcome into this community with over the top glee and zeal. In the course of falling for the commune's promise, Michael falls for Marilyn. With this premise Korine's "Mister Lonely" explores the world of people who inhabit others skin and the necessary social afflictions which come with the territory.

The most compelling interactions of the film come between Marilyn and her husband Charlie Chaplin (played by Denis Lavant). Marilyn is seduced by the abusive Chaplin into the life of impersonation but she refuses to leave so that she may continue to live through Marilyn's life. Morton's performance ranges both poles of joy and depression. But Lavant steals the show as the chilling, grotesque Chaplin who supplants wit for paranoia and manipulation. At times Lavant's Chaplin is Hitler-esque, the distinction being made with a bowler hat. Richard Strange is another revelation of casting as the coarse and hilarious Abraham Lincoln. Strange's Lincoln is the closest character to reality as the designated spokesman of the commune, but his maniacal laugh gives no indication of this. Unfortunately Diego Luna fails to live up to the brilliant cast around him with a flat performance that relies on a frail, tentative voice to convey uncertainty, apprehension and loneliness. This works well in the exposition which details Michael's ennui but Luna never elevates his emotions above the melancholy.

But Luna's kicks, crotch grabs and Michael impersonation are on target, which adds a bit of levity to Korine's film. The director punctuates the somber look into the troubled minds of impersonators with a bit of comedy. A "Little Rascals" Buckwheat impersonator's monologue comparing the "hotness" of women and chicken provides surreal laughter. The images that Korine presents alternate between beautiful and pointless or frightening and revealing. For example, Little Red Riding Hood walking along train tracks in a gorge adds little to the flow of film while Strange's Lincoln spinning a basketball on his finger as he recites the Gettysburg Address complete with insane laughs delves deeper into the character. Korine adds the parallel story of flying Latin American nuns as the emotional counterpoint to Michael's story. This puzzling juxtaposition would work better if it used Werner Herzog's priest character more often. Otherwise it is a decadent attempt to pad the running time of the film.

Overall Korine's "Mister Lonely" suffers from an ambitious script that doesn't develop the characters fully. Snippets of intriguing behavior and character appear throughout "Mister Lonely" which are dropped later on. In the course of the film Michael's impersonator friends offer a deeper look into the psyche of the insecure and uncomfortable than its naïve and whiny narrator. Had Korine dropped the flying nuns out he could have made a film which fully explores Lavant's Chaplin/Hitler or Strange's Lincoln. Instead we are left with the unresolved affair of Marilyn and Michael, which ultimately relegates "Mister Lonely" to an ambitious but unsatisfactory effort.

Tags: FILM PREMIERE