Pollock

Released 2000
Stars Ed Harris, Marcia Gay Harden, Amy Madigan, Jennifer Connelly, Jeffrey Tambor, Bud Cort, John Heard, Val Kilmer
Directed by Ed Harris

In essence, Pollock is an erratically paced, conventional biographical treatment of the life and loves of modernist painter Jackson Pollock, who blew through the New York art scene during the 1940s and 50s before dying in a car crash. As with many great artists, Pollock was an undiagnosed manic-depressive whose life was characterized by periods of self-destructive binges followed by giddy bouts of joy and creativity.

Harris' movie chronicles Pollock's life in a straightforward, adequate manner without giving us much insight into the man behind the art. Other than depicting his wild mood swings, there's not too much to this cinematic representation of Pollock. Even after spending two hours in his company, we don't understand what makes him tick. The other characters who drift into and out of his life, including his wife of 15 years, Lee Krasner (Marcia Gay Harden), and art collector Peggy Guggenheim (Harris' real-life wife, Amy Madigan), aren't better illustrated - they need filling in. The result is that Pollock is more like an incomplete sketch than a detailed portrait.

Summary by James Berardinelli

That's exactly how I felt. I wanted some insight into Pollock. We get glimpses here and there--mostly through glances between him and different family members. We can sense he had an unhappy family life while growing up, but we don't get any details. I'm sure much of his unhappiness was caused by his undiagnosed manic-depression which ruled his life. The film concentrates on his highs and lows, but I wanted to see more quiet moments between himself and Lee. Moments that would have shown why she suffered his abuse and misery besides the artistic genius she saw within him.

When Pollock was alcohol-free his personality was on an even keel, and those two years must have been the happiest of his life. I'm sure they were the happiest of his wife's. Unfortunately, the attention he so desperately craved wasn't the panacea he was expecting. Instead, it made him feel like a phony, and he fell into a deep, alcohol-fueled depression. It's the rare artist (i.e., Picasso) who can push the art world forward without suffering inner demons that make him insufferable to the world. --Bill Alward, August 4, 2001