The Caveman's Valentine

Rating:
Summary: An admirable effort but very uneven film
Review: While I genuinely appreciated the fact that a homeless and mentally ill person was the focus of this movie (a risky and brave move for a director to make), I have to say that this movie did not seem completely believable to me. For one thing, the hero of this movie, Romulus Ledbetter, has severe paranoid schizophrenia and severe hallucinations...and yet he is able to figure out the complexities of a murder, separating truth from fiction. I wondered how he did this when his hallucinations seemed so real and believable. How did he figure out what was truth and what were only the products of his tortured imagination?
Ledbetter's hallucinations are the other problem with this movie...they are so pervasive that they make the movie chaotic and confusing at times.
If the mystery and suspense were as dramatic and intense as Ledbetter's fantasy world, the movie might have had more impact. Instead, it focuses mostly on his illness, with a lackluster mystery added to the mix. Samuel Jackson gives the role his all but the script leaves something to be desired. In comparison, I found a movie with a similar focus, The Prince of Central Park, to be far more watchable. Kudos to the director of The Caveman's Valentine, however, for attempting to show a mentally ill person as someone worthy of respect and dignity.