Six Ways to Sunday [DVD]

Harry Odum lives with his mother who dotes on him beyond the point of normalcy. Hence, Harry is seriously conflicted about the opposite sex and, as well, easily provoked into bouts of raging violence. This last quality proves to be an asset as a Jewish mob underling, Abie Pinkwise, hears of Harry's gifts which have been applied, quite diligently, to a strip club owner.

Harry's quickly recruited as muscle for Louis Varga who, in spite of his last name, is Jewish to the point of reveling in a typical meal--gefilte fish ("Jewish hamburger" he calls it), horseradish, matzoh, and the works--which he invites Harry, a goy (non-Jew), to participate in along with Louis' crew, all members of the tribe. Harry's good at his job--waxing (perhaps the Youngstown Ohio Jewish mob version of "whacking")--and so is soon rolling in dough, enough to buy a new house for him and his Mom.

As Mrs. Odum, Debbie Harry is spot on. She's an excellent actress given the right parts, and this is definitely one of the best parts she's done in a film. The Oedipal attachment she forces on Harry is so strong that near the end of the film, the inevitable happens (you can guess what that is), resulting in tragedy that nevertheless produces a malicious grin. This strong black comedy component of the film, then, is like fusing Bruce Jay Friedman's "A Mother's Kisses" or Dan Greenburg's "How to Be a Jewish Mother" with the Godfather. Except Harry himself is not Jewish, even though his mother is a Jewish mother to the max.

Harry meets Iris, a Hungarian emigre girl who eventually captures his confused heart. Elina Lowinsohn is perfect in this role, as is Isaac Hayes as a corrupt cop (a lotta self-respecting crime films have one of these, right?), Adrien Brody as a wanna-be gangster who emulates urban culture to the point of near-ridiculousness, and Norman Reedus as our hero Harry. The nicely juxtaposed opposites of deep down innocence (in Harry) and vicious brutality work well when combined with Iris' radiant simplicity, generating the charming element of the film.

A constantly broken chair and Mrs. Odum's other homey quirks supplies much of the humor here, but there is some grim stuff too. This is a quirky film that never really got its due and should be seen by many more people.

Recommended.

But somehow I feel he is innocent of all the charges that can be made against him. Adam Bernstein helms his film with a steady and assured hand. In our postmodern time he just ignores the dominating trend to disassemble any work of art to see where it's components came from, where they were originally concieved for the first time - if there is such a thing as the first time.

If he feels the sitation calls for such and such words and actions - he puts them in disregarding any similarities. There is a lot of violence but it's evidently not gratuitous - and that's refreshing.

What I see in this film is an effort of a very mature director to make the movies the way he likes and can. His place on the map is not huge and overflowing but it's very definite.