I saw Mister Lonely in a half-full cinema at the London Film Festival last November and whilst wanting to be generous to the film, couldn't really fathom why anyone had granted the funding to make it. There is a much better film to be made about ordinary folk who make a career out of looking like a celebrity. Sadly, though, its not on view here.
A lookalike of Michael Jackson (Diego Luna) is doing odd jobs like playing hits from Thriller at an old people's home when after visiting his agent, he bumps into a Marilyn Monroe lookalike (Samantha Morton) and they share a coffee together and talk about the future. She tells him about a wonderful place in the Scottish highlands where a lot of lookalikes get together in a kind of hippy commune set-up and 'Jackson' takes her up on the invitation.
Cue some novelty moments as 'Jackson' meets up with lookalikes of James Dean, Charlie Chaplin, The Queen, Abraham Lincoln, Madonna and the Pope. They all share a big house and take it in turns to do mundane jobs around the big house. With money getting tight, they all think up a dream plan to put on a show for the locals which will help them pay the bills. Much time is spent on the rehearsals, and the necessary distraction that the sheep at their commune begin to get ill. Nevertheless the show must go on even if the audience comprises of eight locals.
Oh and occasionally, intercut with the scenes of Scotland, you get shots of nuns in Panama flying in an aeroplane and preparing for a dangerous skydive without safety equipment, led by a visionary missionary (Werner Herzog) and no, I couldn't for the life of me see the point of that either.
Mister Lonely misfires on almost every level, Certinaly not one US indie director Harmony Korine at his best. It's oddball and quirky to the point of being off the scale, with such inane dialogue, it made you wonder why the likes of Diego Luna and Samantha Morton agreed to do it in the first place.
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