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Summary: Speaking "SignLanguage"
Review: You know him best for his striding around Middle-Earth in grimy clothes, beheading orcs left and right. But talented actor Viggo Mortensen is a man of many gifts -- poetry, photography, painting and music among them. "SignLanguage" is a unique blend of his art and what he captures on film.In "SignLanguage," he demonstrates his ability to take the ordinary -- bicycles, ferns, flowerpots, a dead fish and a baby's chubby legs -- and give it a mysterious, ethereal spin. Some are more posed, like "Te Anu," a shot of costar Elijah Wood sitting in the snow. Others are more intimate like "Fell," a haunting collage of light, shadow and leaves. You can sit and stare at that one all day. Several photographs are from Mortensen's time in New Zealand shooting the fantasy epic "The Lord of the Rings." As a result, there are shots of New Zealand's beautiful scenery, such as a haunting shot of misty forests as pretty and ominous as anything in the films. Additionally, there are some pictures of Mortensen's castmates. These moments are captured with surprising delicacy, as if Mortensen has cropped away the outside world and just left in the images he wants his readers to see. And peppered in with the photos are paintings: The layered, deceptively simple-looking "Sun Losing Its Yellow," the haunting, darker "Element of Surprise." Kevin Power's thought-provoking, intelligent essay on Mortensen's work is, if not a good summary, then a good springboard into the work itself. Certainly reading it puts you in the right frame of mind to fully appreciate Mortensen's work. The meditative, capture-the-moment quality of Mortensen's work is one that is rare to find in any kind of art. And "SignLanguage" proves yet again that when it comes to Viggo Mortensen, still waters run deep.
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