Customer Reviews

Levity

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I wish I could fill my library with movies exactly like this. When I first saw this movie, I sort of watched it in shock. Stories of this quality are so rare! First and foremost, this is about forgiveness. Each character in our story feels that they have failed in some way, and they're not sure how to simply make it right. To make peace. Large mistakes, little mistakes, these little devils tend to stay with us, sowing the seeds is discontent.
Manual Jordan (Billy Bob Thorton) is released from jail after 20 years and embarks on a mission to find redemption, although he doesn't really expect to find it. Perhaps it is the journey that is more important to him. He finds a preacher (Morgan Freeman) who is trying to reach a bunch of teenagers and steer them away from the destructive lifestyles they're leading. He runs a makeshift church/soup kitchen across the street from a local dance club.
Manual also comes in to the life of a woman (Holly Hunter) who is trying to steer her son away from the gang street life he is falling in to. By far my favorite piece of this story is played by the beautiful Kirsten Dunst. She is the emotional heart of the story as the confused party girl who dreams of a better life, but has no idea how to get there. Suffering from low self-esteem and an angry alcoholic mother, she drifts closer to harms way each night.
What is story has to offer is emotions in raw form. What would any of us do in extreme circumstances? Most of us will never know. These people do. Most of their lives have been impacted by one form of violence or another. These are decent people inside. People that made bad choices. The road to hell is paved with good intentions they say and little tiny mistakes. Pretty soon these little mistakes feed on themselves and before you know it, you start having BIG lapses in good judgment. How did this happen? How did I get here? ---by many little mistakes.
What was most important to me in this story was the insight in to the fragility and strength of the human spirit. These people are not perfect. But each of them is hoping for something better, something more meaningful. A purpose, and maybe a little emotional justice. You can think of them all as wounded animals, trapped in a box. Most of them don't know how they got in there. They want out. They don't know how to get out, and they're growing increasingly desperate. It is in this dark place that they find their true characters. By looking their little devils in the face and choosing another path, they find begin to find peace within themselves.

I know that this is not always a pretty picture. But sometimes you need to look at the ugliness of humanity in order to see the beauty. Beauty is there, whether we see it or not. And that's what I think this movie is, beautiful.

Considering the cast, I thought that Levity received a surprisingly small amount of attention. Most likely that's becuase it doesn't meet the standard for the type of movie average Americans enjoy.
I thought Billy Bob Thornton did an excellent job with his character. All of the characters draw you into the movie. Levity is quiet for the most part and somewhat grim, but at the same time it contains dark comedy throughout the entire length of the movie. A good movie overall.

How do we reconcile with the mistakes we have made in the past? This is a thought provoking story about a man's struggle to make amends for a murder he committed impulsively as a youth. Instead of distancing the viewer, the film suggests that we are all capable (if not guilty) of regrettable acts, and goes on to explore the ways a person can be of use in the world as opposed to merely "taking up space." The film has a meditative quality and a deliberate pace, but is very absorbing nonetheless. An excellent cast and moody soundtrack complement the screenplay. The only reason I didn't give five stars is that the plot is a bit cliched, and the main philosophical soliloquy is inexplicably recited verbatim twice in the film, so it begins to feel a bit didactic. Still, a very touching film.

Manuel Jordan (Billy Bob Thornton) is unexpectedly released from prison after having been incarcerated for two decades for murder, which he solemnly regrets committing. Free and moving Manuel stops frequently to contemplate his current actions and choices as he reflects on his juvenile mistake that he committed in a small convenient store some twenty years ago. By choice, based on repent, he ends up in the neighborhood where he committed the murder and by chance he ends up getting a small job as a janitor in a half-way home. Through his job and leisure time he does everything he can do in order to repent for his past crime. Manuel seeks up the sister (Holly Hunter) of the young adult that he killed, since he wants to display his regret of his crime. Levity is a film that gives the audience a chance to reflect on daily decisions and actions as we affect others continuously. Manuel's pondering is displayed with thoughtful cinematography and supported through a well written script, which leaves the audience with a decent cinematic experience.

I have yet to see a movie with Billy Bob Thornton, Morgan Freeman, Kirsten Dunst or Holly Hunter that I don't like. And this movie has all of them, so it was set up from the beginning as a movie that stood a big chance of becoming a classic in my book. And it did...

"Levity" brings forward the solid acting muscle of three consolidated actors and a rising new talent to tell a story about redemption in a way that leaves some ends open, yet makes you get up at the end and think positively about life and potential for overcoming guilt and negative past experiences. All the acting goes on over a tapestry of rich music woven by Mark Oliver Everett, to create one of 2003's most subtle yet powerful dramas.

Another example of how a great movie gets overlooked because it was too slow and too deep for our chills & thrills modern movie-watching habits. If you have the patience and intellect and heart, you will love this movie. Great performances all around.

LEVITY is a very quiet little sleeper of a movie. Written and directed by Ed Solomon it is a theme and variations on seeking redemption. A convict who accepts the punishment of life imprisonment for his murder of a young man in a fast food store 22 years prior is abruptly released by a prison board who decide that his exceptional prison behaviour merits his sentence being commuted. Suddenly thrust from his cell and accepted destiny back into the world where his crime occurred, the man's only drive is to find the sister of his vistim and make amends for his crime. He walks (somnolently, accompanied by the recurring ghost vision of his victim) thru the dark alleys of some unidentified wintry city, encounters a black 'minister/soup kitchen man', accepts employment as a custodian, and becomes involved with the minister's attempt to salvage the night clubbers who do drugs etc, falling into the chasm of despair from where the convict has history. His presence in this setting has some positive effects on the lost ones' lives. He finds the sister of the man he murdered and in attempting to make things right, saves her teenage son from his vendetta for revenge of his attempted murder. Gestures are made, things work out and other things do't work out: we are left without knowing the true results of these attempts at redemption.

The cast includes extraordinarily subdued and subtle performances by Billy Bob Thornton, Morgan Freeman, Holly Hunter, and Kirsten Dunst. The smarmy underbelly of a city is captured authentically and artistcially by the cinematographer, and the director paces this quiet, inward tale with a sense of a death march. Though there is no classical music reference made there is a strong resemblance to the mood and metier of the Shostakovich 15th String Quartet. And as 'chamber music' this fine little film will bear revisiting.

When I put this movie in my DVD player, I was expecting a heist with cool characters and snappy dialogue. Obviously I was way off! As the film unravelled ever so slowly, it just got more and more confusing, stupid, and pointless, and it stayed boring. Morgan Freeman's character didn't make sense and didn't have a point or a reason. The same was the case with Kirstin Dunst. I just can't believe that four big named (some highly acclaimed) actors would play these roles. I also can't believe that I sat through this entire movie. All in all, Levity was horrible and torturous. I would rather watch paint dry than watch this again. It is obviously not something that children would want to see, nor would they enjoy. It's R rating reflects a noticable amount of profanity.

The word "levity" is supposed to mean "lightness", but there is certainly nothing light about this stark drama which deals with sin and redemption. Billy Bob Thornton is cast as a troubled man who has just been released from prison for killing a convenience store clerk in a botched robbery 23 years before. He plays the role with quiet stoicism, wears his graying hair shoulder length and speaks in a gentle voice as he returns to the neighborhood where the crime was committed.

Here, he meets Morgan Freeman, a storefront preacher with a secret of his own, and he's given a job as custodian of the place. Kristin Durst is one of the lost young people who he comes in contact with, and in his own simple way, he seems to be making a difference in her life. The person he has come here to meet, however, is the sister of the young man who he had murdered. Holly Hunter is cast in this role and they start to develop a deep friendship, especially when her son gets in trouble and Billy Bob Thornton comes to his aid.

There's a sadness and melancholy to the entire film, which is set on cold dreary winter streets. It's slow, bleak and rather creepy, especially when the hero is visited over and over again by the apparition of the young man who he has murdered. I found the concept interesting, the acting excellent and the story sad and depressing. And yet, it was a fine film.

New on DVD (August, 03), this overlooked, exceptional film strikes an emotional chord with universal truths.

Based on real events, LEVITY (Columbia Tristar) stars Billy Bob Thornton as a convicted murderer paroled after serving 19 years in prison. Haunted by his spontaneous shooting of a store clerk in a failed robbery, he craves reconciliation and returns to his old inner-city neighborhood where he encounters a troubled woman (Kirsten Dunst), a mysterious street preacher (Morgan freeman) and the sister (Holly Hunter) of the boy he killed.

It's rare that a movie tackles such difficult themes of guilt, forgiveness, reconciliation and atonement with such insight, grace and intelligence.