What are the chances of making a successful film about the inner thoughts and creative process of a great painter? Probably not high. But Ed Harris has pulled it off. And done so in fine fashion.

This was an acting/directing project he was determined to do for some time, reminiscent of Robert Duvall's personal goal to make The Apostle in 1997.

These multi-year obsessions often end up as cramped creative efforts and, in the first fifteen minutes of Pollock, it was a little like waiting for the other shoe to drop... Ed was doing a lot of staring into the cosmos.

To his great credit however, the film stays tight and trim as the tempestuous relationship between the star and his wife rises to a crescendo.

Jackson Pollock was an innovator but he had a self-destructive nature. He couldn't or didn't take care of himself at all. It was only art. That was all that mattered.

His wife, Lee Krasner (exceptionally well-played by Marcia Gay Harden), adored him and was willing to put up with his excesses as he broke new ground in contemporary painting. Their relationship is virtually the whole story. It's what makes this film well worth watching whether you're interested in painting or not.

The other strong dynamic is between Pollock and the major domo of art criticism, Clement Greenberg (Jeffrey Tambor). Was the painter inspired by his own creativity or by what the critics told him to paint?

This soul-destroying conflict provides fertile ground for Ed Harris's high-strung acting style. He flails away at a film maker, ignores his family, drinks himself silly as interesting characters like Peggy Guggenheim (Amy Madigan) push his buttons and turn up the pressure to produce great art. How can anyone totally obsessed with his work possibly cope with all these external influences?

The cleverness of this film is in keeping the plotline thin but there is plenty of action too to hold your interest. Whether you know much about Jackson Pollock and what eventually happened to him matters little.

Ed Harris's great obsession with Pollock has been vindicated - to such a degree it makes you wonder if his total immersion into his acting and directing was just as extreme in this case as Jackson Pollock's obsession with his painting was all his tortured life.