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I saw a preview of this the other night. The first letter illustrates the kind of thinking that may well keep people from seeing how toughminded a movie it is. As the review says, it's not about getting but about not having. The letter writer finds the thought of being a stockbroker depressing. No doubt he'd prefer something he found more spiritually fulfilling. But that kind of thinking is a luxury when you're confronted with the need to find shelter and food for your child and yourself. And how inured have we become to the suffering of others when we the story of someone who makes something of himself, who puts the basic worries of food and shelter behind him, is regarded as merely a material victory? Smith's character is trying to keep body and soul together. That he does it is not offered as some sort of affirmation but as a long, hard slog. And the movie places his struggle right in the context of the Reagan years. This homeless man is a hardworking guy who has a run of really, really bad luck. That's the point. That it wasn't just the mentally ill or addicted or perpetually indigent who were homeless in the Reagan years -- but people who were suddenly stripped of all the safety nets. It's going to be very interesting to see whether the audiences always screaming for liberal movies are going to recognize this one as such. Or if they and the critics are going to review the movie they think it is on the basis of the title or the trailer, and not the movie it is.
