Donald Sutherland

THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY: old dogs Jagger and Sutherland light up a talky neo-noir

by
Klaes Bang and Elizabeth Debicki in THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY. Photo courtesy of Cinequest.

In the neo-noir The Burnt Orange Heresy, a shady art critic (Klaes Bang) picks up an adventuresome hottie (Elizabeth Debicki) and is enlisted by a menacing zillionaire (Mick Jagger) to scheme out a painting from a reclusive painter (Donald Sutherland). This being a neo-noir, things don’t go as the critic has planned and it takes him too long to realize that he is the sap in the story.

Klaes Bang (The Square) is just made to play that handsome charmer who is just Up To No Good, the kind of role that would have gone to Zachary Scott in the 1940s. But in The Burnt Orange Heresy, Debicki, Sutherland and Jagger are each so compelling, and their characters are so rich, that they completely overshadow Bang’s critic.

This is also a very talky movie, too much so. All the yakking and Bang’s unrelatability drag down The Burnt Orange Heresy and keep it from engaging the audience. relatibility

Sutherland has such a sparkle as the mischievous painter, and it may be easier to spot it now in the aged actor than forty years ago in MASH or Animal House.

Mick Jagger in THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY

The real surprise here is Mick Jagger. This character, a rich and utterly masterful string-puller, is well within Jagger’s acting range and he nails it. After all, as an actor in fictional narratives, he is best known for two of the very worst movies of 1970: Ned Kelly and Performance. But here, Jagger employs his unmatched worldliness to inform this performance (and he makes great use of his trademark sneer and predatory smile, too). Jagger and Sutherland are probably the two best reasons to see this movie.

I saw The Burnt Orange Heresy at Cinequest. I expect it to be released theatrically in the Bay Area in the next few weeks.

THE LEISURE SEEKER: Mirren and Sutherland on a road trip

by

Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren in THE LEISURE SEEKER, Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

In The Leisure Seeker, a strong-willed suburban retiree (Helen Mirren) finds her longtime husband (Donald Sutherland) sinking into Alzheimer’s.   Having been a teacher who has found the greatest joy in his recall of literature, the impact of the memory disease will be very specific.  Facing a health issue of her own, she decides to take him on a road trip all the way down the Eastern Seaboard to Ernest Hemingway’s house in Key West. Off they go in their trusty Winnebago and adventures ensue.

There’s plenty of humor here, and this is not a particularly heartbreaking Alzheimer’s movie.  Mirren and Sutherland are both just so good in their roles.  Sutherland’s hubby is good-natured as long as he can pilot his 20-foot RV and get a decent hamburger without having to learn a restaurant server’s first name; he slips into a literary revelry at the slightest provocation.   Mirren is the social navigator, now faced with corralling somebody who now dips into another reality.

It’s the first American film for the accomplished Italian director Paolo Virzi (Like Crazy).  Unfortunately, there’s just something about the iconic American road trip and, perhaps, America itself that Virzi just doesn’t get, and The Leisure Seeker never quite ascends to greatness.

I was amused more than thrilled or moved by The Leisure Seeker.  Yet the performances of Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland can justify catching the movie.