Manglehorn (2015)

Pretty Good

Powerful

Fantastic!

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Angelo Manglehorn (Al Pacino) is a locksmith in the small town of Crown Rock, Texas. He has some anger management issues and trouble with relationships, primarily because of his lost love Claire. Holly Hunt plays a bank teller who has caught his interest and Chris Messina plays his successful son, and their relationship would be marked as "needs improving."Manglehorn has created a prison for himself in his mind, trapped by a failed relationship, filled with "return to sender" letters.This is another bitter-sweet Al Pacino senior citizen drama. It is not a bad film, just void of action.Guide: No sex or nudity.I don't recall any F-bombs.Note to self: Don't overly praise a former girlfriend with your current girlfriend.

My wife and I watched this at home via Netflix streaming movies. Al Pacino plays the title role as Mr Manglehorn. He is a busy locksmith in this fictitious Texas town, filmed in and around Austin, Texas. He has an obsession, it has been going on for years, writing letters to his Clara back East. He never hears back, mostly the letters get returned for inability to deliver.It isn't made clear if Clara is in fact still alive, it seemed to me she must be deceased. But years earlier Manglehorn threw away his chances for a lasting relationship with Clara, who we only see in a few old photos, and this has been eating at him for all those years, making it virtually impossible for him to form any genuine relationships.So this movie is about that, can Manglehorn somehow get past all this in his twilight years? Good as his current interest is Holly Hunter as Dawn. She is a teller at the local bank and when Manglehorn goes to deposit his money he always waits to be served by her. Somewhat surprisingly she has taken an interest in this unkempt, often gruff, older man. In a funny scene when they are out on a date later she asks if he wants to take a bath with her and he doesn't know how to respond so he changes the subject.Chris Messina is good in a small role as Manglehorn's somewhat estranged son Jacob, a successful financial professional. Overall an interesting, sometimes quirky character study.

Manglehorn is a locksmith and key maker. One particular key is symbolic and rekindles love in Manglehorn's heart to move forward and love again. He's spent a lifetime nursing love for a woman he can't have, and stores her "returned to sender" letters in boxes and shelves that line his office like wallpaper. Claire's silence empties into the nothingness of Manglehorn's deep abyss as his unbridled passion for her destroys his marriage and relationship with his son in flashback sequences. Slow-motion minutes tick with a 7-car pileup, the result of a watermelon truck collision, a symbolical reflection of the hearts Manglehorn smashes like over- ripe fruit in the wake of his painful obsession with Claire.Bank-teller Dawn (Holly Hunter) presents a challenge for Manglehorn. He struggles with the choice of a meaningful connection with the real, or his continued obsession with the imagined. Conflicts rage as tanning salon-owner, Gary (Harmony Korine), widens the divide between Manglehorn and his son. The audience will feel compassion for his son Jacob (Chris Messina) as Manglehorn proclaims, "I never loved your mother!" Horrible as it sounds, Pacino remains lovable as Manglehorn as you await the conclusion for this out-of-whack character. Manglehorn's concern for a cat reveals a heart capable of showing love that doesn't always follow through. A special key ultimately unlocks the solution for Manglehorn to be set free.Like his relationship with his cat, Manglehorn nurtures his granddaughter Kylie, played by the adorable Skylar Gasper. The unique dialogue at the park as they eat ice cream conveys child-like beliefs are sometimes more meaningful than knowledgeable minds. The dialogue exchanges reinforce the notion that Manglehorn does have capacity to love those he chooses to as he goes along with Skylar's unscientific logic why leaves change color, for example. There are 3 instances of supernatural activity in moments that cannot be explained and are as believable as the acting is. It's a good story, moderately paced, and worth the time. There is nothing offensive, other than Manglehorn's encounter at Gary's message parlor that show Manglehorn's intimacy issues and where his values truly are. It is here you'll agree the creators' phallic title Manglehorn, suggests a mangled heart is capable of trumping instant gratification when the will is strong. I give this movie 7 stars: 3 for Pacino's acting, 2 for the grand-daughter/Manglehorn dialogue, 1 for the symbolic creativity of the harmless supernatural events, and 1 for the inclusion of the art of letter-writing in the plot.I watched Manglehorn on Netflix.

Unfortunately, I found this to be a real mess of a movie. Normally, anything with Al Pacino in it I would look forward to seeing, but even his great talent can't save this one, in my opinion.Here, he portrays Manglehorn, a very strange character indeed, who owns a lock and key shop in a small Texas town. He's so obsessed with a long lost love, that even after years have passed he's still sending her letters, only to have them returned each time marked "Return to Sender".Manglehorn is also prone to temper tantrums, has a strained relationship with his son (Chris Mssina), and in reality is only close to his beloved cat Fannie. Even when the local bank teller, played by the very talented Holly Hunter, tries to get closer to him, things go "south" quickly.Overall, this was quite the disappointment from the accomplished director David Gordon Green, whose recent movies "Joe" and "Prince Avalanche" I liked very much, with a first time screenwriter Paul Logan handling the script. I don't mind bizarre films, but this one never clicked for me, and the 180 at the end of the movie was just too little too late.