Tetro

It's pretty hard to talk about this week's 'Tetro' without talking about Francis Ford Coppola, as it's his first original screenplay since 1973's 'The Conversation' and probably his most interesting film in maybe twenty years. You may argue this, but you cannot deny the comparisons between it and his sorely overlooked follow up to 'The Outsiders', 'Rumble Fish'. Again, Coppola takes us into the relationship between eager teenager and distant, complex older brother. He also again blesses us with a stark and gorgeous black and white world of dramatic, dream-like images. 'Tetro' starts out as a sort of kitchen sink drama about two men tearing each other up over their complicated family. But by the film's third act, Coppola cranks up the atmosphere to operatic levels with big images and set pieces. It feels a little unbalanced, and many will disagree with the film's overall tone. But love it or hate it, 'Tetro' is a remarkable film.

Like Mickey Rourke's "Motorcycle Boy", Vincent Gallo's Tetro is the essence of hipster cool and existential angst. He smokes, he's prone to periods of brooding, and has a history of psychological issues. He's a complicated man, but no one understands him but his woman (who met him as his nurse in a mental institution). His promise as one of the great writers has become the stuff of legend, but he's never delivered what could have been his opus. "He's like a genius", his wife tells his younger brother, "but without a lot of accomplishments". It's a line that's again remarkably similar to Dennis Hopper's drunken speech about the essence of "The Motorcycle Boy": "Your brother was born in the wrong era, on the wrong side of the river, with the ability to do anything that he wants to do; and finally, nothing that he wants to do". It's a role that covers the spectrum, and Vincent Gallo pretty much illuminates all of it. He broods with those big, hollow eyes; he loves his Argentinian wife; and he's prone to fits of firey, Italian rage (which always seem to come off as pretty funny at times). Gallo has had no problem casting himself as the sexy, tortured genius whether in real life or in his own films; but it's nevertheless hard to deny his work here.

Just 3 days shy of his eighteenth birthday, young Benny is a waiter on a cruise ship. Engine repairs give him the opportunity to find his long lost older brother, Angelo, who now spends his days drinking coffee and lighting small plays in Buenos Aires. Angelo is long divorced from his family, and so loathes their famous composer father that he now goes only by the first half of the family name, Tetrocini. "You know what love is in a family like ours", he asks Benny, "it's a quick stab in the heart". Tetro wants little to do with Benny, but his charm and an act of fate keep him grounded with Tetro and his wife. An aspiring writer himself, Benny becomes obsessed with the great work Tetro never published and the answers it might give him as to what has become of their family. "It's not fair", Benny protests. "I don't know anything. All I have is you, and you're fucking crazy". Benny is played by Alden Ehrenreich, who makes a pretty impressive feature debut. He recalls Michael Pitt without all the sensitive preening, and does teenaged naivete just as well as he does wise-beyond-his-years confidence.

'Tetro's third act is exponentially heavier, as Benny turns Tetro's heavily coded work into a masterpiece of a successful play. Tetro is then faced with having his only closely guarded work turned over to the world. "If you have one word, who would you give it to", he asks his wife. What we see of the play begins to parallel the slow unraveling of the Tetrocini family's past, as do flashbacks which too are in color so exaggerated they look like they were filmed in Technicolor. Everything all comes to a head in a big way, with Coppola staging a very glamorous awards ceremony and a finale that looks like Rusty James and The Motorcycle Boy crashing a Corleone funeral.

Echoes of Coppola's past films aren't the only thing haunting 'Tetro'. The composer father, the horrible accident which took a loved one, the fear over releasing what may be one's last great work - it feels like one of the most personal films he ever put out. It may not be one of his best, but it is a wonderful reminder of why he is still making them.