The Occasional Blog of Jonah Weiland

I saw the movie “Factotum� tonight. I vaguely recall hearing something about Matt Dillon making this film a year ago, but then didn’t hear anything about it until Dillon’s recent appearance on “The Daily Show.�

“Factotum� is based on the book by Charles Bukowski in which Charles writes through his alter-ego Henry Chinaski about a period of his life that saw him loose many jobs and live a pretty miserable experience. That’s pretty much true for most of Chuck’s (or should I call him Hank?) books, really.

I like his writing. A lot. It’s terribly honest, visceral and often times painful. There are very few writers that can use words in the same way that he does. When you read him, you don’t always like him, but you are always captivated.

Now, “Factotum� is a pretty good movie. Dillon does an able job playing Henry, without completely channeling Charles. And that’s a good thing because there is only one Bukowski. But, the problem with both this film and “Barfly� – another film based on the writing of Bukowski – is that it’s impossible to capture Bukowski’s descriptive style in film. It works uniquely well on the printed page and unless you have lots of narration, it never quite comes across on the screen. It’s not a bad movie, but it doesn’t have near the impact that his writing does.

I think my favorite member of the cast is Lili Taylor who plays Henry’s girlfriend Jan. She perfectly embodies the typical Bukowski woman – a drunk crazy who loves to fuck constantly. Lili’s a great actress and a beautiful woman and boy did they white trash her up for this film.

All told, it’s a decent movie, but I can’t really see anyone enjoying this film unless you like Chuck’s writing. If you don’t like the world he lives in, there’s no point in seeing it.