The Man Without a Face

Rating:
Summary: Oscar worthy film --- 2 thumbs up. Way up!
Review: If you have a good heart, you'll find this movie to be very warm and touching. This is as good as drama movies get. Not only can you learn a lesson from this film, at the same time it is a very entertaining film. If you want to see what a good actor is like, then see this movie.

Rating:
Summary: Read the book instead
Review: Isabelle Holland's The Man Without a Face is a strong, daring work that deserves wider attention than its placement in the ghetto of "young adult" fiction. Unfortunately, Mel Gibson's film version does to the story what the car accident did to the visage of his character--disfigures it beyond recognition.

Here the original is bowdlerized and trivialized. It's decent enough entertainment, but it should have been so much more.

Read Holland's novel and skip the movie.

Rating:
Summary: Gibson can perform without a gun or sword
Review: It took me a long time to rent this movie because it didn't seem like it had much action and I loved to watch Gibson shoot, hack, stab, etc. After all, Mel Gibson is an American Action Hero, bigger than life and one of the Hollywood's greatest men of action.

I wasn't the least bit disappointed in this film, it is very good. The story of a young man (yes it is a coming of age film) spending his summer in a resort town on an island with one strange citizen that the townspeople love to gossip about. The young man and recluse meet and become fast friends. The mentor and student are plunged into a crisis when false assumptions are made and the hero of the story must make the moral decision to put the welfare of his friend ahead of his own.

It is a compelling and heart felt story, and while it offers little in the way of action and adventure, it is well worth watching.

Rating:
Summary: Gibson can perform without a gun or sword
Review: It took me a long time to rent this movie because it didn't seem like it had much action and I loved to watch Gibson shoot, hack, stab, etc. After all, Mel Gibson is an American Action Hero, bigger than life and one of the Hollywood's greatest men of action.

I wasn't the least bit disappointed in this film, it is very good. The story of a young man (yes it is a coming of age film) spending his summer in a resort town on an island with one strange citizen that the townspeople love to gossip about. The young man and recluse meet and become fast friends. The mentor and student are plunged into a crisis when false assumptions are made and the hero of the story must make the moral decision to put the welfare of his friend ahead of his own.

It is a compelling and heart felt story, and while it offers little in the way of action and adventure, it is well worth watching.

Rating:
Summary: Tremendously Painful Film
Review: Looking for a means to relax, I browsed the movies "on demand" through my cable service. I read the description and decided to give this film a chance. Though the nearly 2 hour film starts slow, I continued to watch. Set in the late 1960's, the injustice served in this film is probably even more so in today's society. Intolerable justice which leads to a painful closing; maybe bittersweet for others. No tears, just pain. Like other films I have watched and in some cases reviewed (watch L.I.E. or Eban and Charley for alternate viewpoints and storylines), this one deals with the bond between a man and a young boy - in this case, a boy seeking the guidance, knowledge and friendship of someone older and wiser. The child, Charlie is from a broken family (divorced mother, nagging sisters and an alcoholic father now deceased), Charlie seeks a way to gain acceptance into a boarding school. In doing so, he seeks out and befriends a disfigured man (played by Mel Gibson). As mentioned, a slow start that keeps you tuned in and eventually has you hooked. The ending hurts, and shows us once against how bigotry and circumstance continue to shield justice on our country - then, as it does now. I would rather not share the twisted plot that results. I would refer to this film as a sleeper, and one I very much enjoyed, and yet knew nothing about before watching.

NOTE: After writing this review, I received an email from an avid reader (of which I am not). I have since learned the the film adaption of the book is NOT a true portrayal. In the book, the disfigured character was, in fact, gay. He & the teenager have a sexual relationship (although it is only tastefully referred to & not depicted). Based on this blatant change of context, Mr. Gibson apparently was more interested in making big Hollywood money, or has some personal issues with the story line...I'm sure that is the subject of forums elsewhere. Shame on him for rewriting the book.

Rating:
Summary: Different from the novel but excellent in its own right
Review: Mel Gibson does justice to a wonderful story (based on the novel by Isabelle Holland) in "The Man Without a Face," his directorial debut. Commonly underrated as an actor because of his good looks and blockbuster action hits, Gibson is also terrific as the scarred recluse Justin McLeod, cantankerous and charismatic by turns. Like his student, Chuck (Nick Stahl), we notice the terrible burns less and less as the friendship between the boy and his tutor develops, as we penetrate the surface to the beauty beneath. (By the way, as one reviewer noted, only one half of McLeod's face has been disfigured - the title refers, not to McLeod, but to Chuck's absent father.)

I do wonder why Gibson chose to eliminate the homoerotic overtones in their relationship - in the novel, Chuck's yearning for a genuine father figure is inextricably entangled with his confusion regarding his sexual identity and attraction to his tutor, and these twin needs force the dramatic climax that ends their time together. Perhaps Gibson preferred to keep the plot simpler, concentrating on the themes of prejudice, the joy of teaching, and the friendship and platonic love that his protagonists learn from each other. Or perhaps he feared that his viewing audience would not be as sympathetic towards a homosexual McLeod who killed a previous pupil in a drunk driving accident. Some reviewers appear to feel that the movie did not end as well as it began, and I think this could well be chalked up to the Hollywood sanitization of the last third of Holland's book.

Still, this is a quietly splendid first film for director Gibson - a moving tribute to the transformative power of friendship and a funny, sometimes painful coming-of-age story expertly combined.

Rating:
Summary: Different from the novel but excellent in its own right
Review: Mel Gibson does justice to a wonderful story (based on the novel by Isabelle Holland) in "The Man Without a Face," his directorial debut. Commonly underrated as an actor because of his good looks and blockbuster action hits, Gibson is also terrific as the scarred recluse Justin McLeod, cantankerous and charismatic by turns. Like his student, Chuck (Nick Stahl), we notice the terrible burns less and less as the friendship between the boy and his tutor develops, as we penetrate the surface to the beauty beneath. (By the way, as one reviewer noted, only one half of McLeod's face has been disfigured - the title refers, not to McLeod, but to Chuck's absent father.)

I do wonder why Gibson chose to eliminate the homoerotic overtones in their relationship - in the novel, Chuck's yearning for a genuine father figure is inextricably entangled with his confusion regarding his sexual identity and attraction to his tutor, and these twin needs force the dramatic climax that ends their time together. Perhaps Gibson preferred to keep the plot simpler, concentrating on the themes of prejudice, the joy of teaching, and the friendship and platonic love that his protagonists learn from each other. Or perhaps he feared that his viewing audience would not be as sympathetic towards a homosexual McLeod who killed a previous pupil in a drunk driving accident. Some reviewers appear to feel that the movie did not end as well as it began, and I think this could well be chalked up to the Hollywood sanitization of the last third of Holland's book.

Still, this is a quietly splendid first film for director Gibson - a moving tribute to the transformative power of friendship and a funny, sometimes painful coming-of-age story expertly combined.

Rating:
Summary: The Outcast
Review: Mel Gibson stars as a man who is hiding from a past that haunts him. In this, his directoral debut, he displayed that he was serious about his new found profession and announced that he was here to stay. Nick Stahl star's as a young boy with darkness in his own past. After having trouble at school, he gathers up all of the bravery he can muster to ask the reclusive hermit, known to the locals as "Hamburger Head", if he will help him with his school work. After much hesitation, Mcleod (Gibson) gives in. The first lesson he gives the boy is digging a hole, and you can guess how much the boy likes that.

The Man without a Face explores the deep relationship that can be shared after a man has been hurt, and a boy looses his father. Both of them have secrets, and both quickly develop a bond. Its one of Gibson's finest movies.

The only problem I had with the movie, was the predictable situation that the movie places Gibson and the Boy in near the end. I don't want to spoil it, but it would have been more enjoyable and less formulaic if they hadn't gone in that direction. Besides that small detail, all of the plot surrounding the incident is terrific, worth your time, and your tissues. If you want to study Nick Stahl in his other movies, he can be found in MTV'S "Wasted", and the great shocker "Bully". Also, he has a cameo (like everybody else) in "The Thin Red Line."

Rating:
Summary: First time's a charm.
Review: Mel Gibson's first time directing is notably successful. The Man Without A Face is warm movie with themes touching prejudice, the relationship between teacher and student, and faces of deception. Chuck Norstadt is a young boy whose mother's capricious relationships have sent her skimming through multiple marriages and developing a considerable deal of tension at home. The dysfunctional family leaves Chuck desperately looking for companionship. He finds an unlikely friend, the town's "freak," Justin McLeod (Gibson), who had half his face horribly scarred in a car accident. McLeod lives in a big house on the coast as a lonely hermit whose past is shrouded in ugly rumors and fear.

McLeod becomes Chuck's tutor and his friend, although Chuck will do some teaching of his own. They both realize they have a lot to learn about each other, and their friendship develops into something stirring and honest. Things get complicated when vile rumors and intolerance threaten to separate them, though.

The script is smart, and Gibson's direction guides this film with a discerning knack for emotional lucidity and realism. Nick Stahl (as Chuck) is one of the few young actors who can do emotional expression that doesn't seem forced and stupid. This is critical, because bad casting for Chuck would seriously have ruined this movie. Gibson, of course, is great here, but what would you expect? He's a tremendously versatile actor. I do think the movie probably should have been about 10 minutes longer to flesh out the ending a bit. That's not a huge complaint...the last scene in the movie makes up for any disappointment because it is very moving and evocative in its simplicity. Ahh...truly an excellent movie.

Rating:
Summary: A Truly Beautiful Film
Review: Once in a while you come across a film that reaches into your heart and holds on tight. Mel Gibson's directorial debut does just this. "Man Without" is a beautifully crafted film about friendship and acceptance, set to a superb musical score by James Horner. Gibson hews a powerful performance as a man given the chance to transcend his life of solitude and regret, when he agrees to tutor a troubled young boy. Nick Stahl does a fine job as the young boy who secretly studies literature with the town "freak", and comes to find in his teacher the father he never had and the friend he would always cherish. Long after the lights have come up and the credits have finished rolling, this film stays with you. More than just a commendable first effort, Mel Gibson's cinematic work of art is uncomparable.