Take it from any of us at 411mania; writing is one of the most rewarding experiences anyone can have. It can also, however, be one of the most intimidating. That white page or blank screen – especially when you have a deadline – can drive you crazy when you’re trying to come up with anything to put down on it. I can’t begin to tell you how many things I find myself doing instead of working on my columns or reviews. Hell, right now I’m thinking about checking my e-mail or myspace page, just to see if anyone left me a comment or message.
But thanks to Factotum, a release from IFC Films, I have seen what can happen if too many distractions take their toll on a writer, and while the film is great, it’s also one of the scariest pieces of work I’ve ever seen in a theater. Based on the novel by Charles Bukowski, Factotum is the story of Henry Chinaski (Matt Dillon), a man who claims he is a writer just because he sits down occasionally with a pad and pencil and writes. Considering what we see here, he writes only 20 percent of the time because he is spending the rest of his time drinking, going home with women, and working odd jobs to make more money that he can use for his drinking and going home with women.
The women Henry goes home with complete losers in the game of life. At least Henry can claim to be something even if he isn't. Women like Jan (Lili Taylor) and Laura (Marisa Tomei) have barely anything to get them through the day. Laura at least has a choice, to hit the bottle or spend her time with an old disillusioned rich Frenchman named Pierre, but Jan has nothing except to be with Henry, then drink, then sleep, then throw up, then drink some more.
Despite how pathetic these women are in Factotum, Henry is even more so because of the flashes of potential that he shows in scattered points throughout the film. He can be a good writer if he chooses to lock himself away and concentrate, but he’s so weak that he can’t resist every single temptation that gets thrown his way, and those temptations become so addicting that he has to take odd jobs to get the money to feed the addictions. From delivering ice to working for a bike shop to packing brake shoes, there’s nothing he wouldn’t do to get his drinking money. Even when he gets some success through some lucky picks at the horse track, it never lasts because the world he’s trapped himself in won’t let him out. Which is fine, because he refuses to leave it anyway. Henry is perfectly fine with traipsing through the gutter of life, leaving a trail of fire behind him to burn as many bridges as possible.
And yet, with all of his self-destructive ways, you can’t help but feel sorry for him. Henry is the ultimate example of the talented one who slipped through the cracks, and Factotum is the ultimate look at the darker side of writing. It teaches you that just calling yourself a writer doesn’t make you a writer, and you see this in many different moments throughout the film. The further we go, the more we see Henry becoming more and more hesitant to call himself one, and when he is in a room with someone else who considers himself a writer – someone who actually is one – we see a fantastic moment of pure uncomfortable silence.
There’s very little to give away here, since the film very simply passes the time showcasing Henry getting older and more pitiful with each passing minute. We see his “relationships” with Jan and Laura begin, evolve, then quickly collapse in the same manner of all his odd jobs. No matter what, he can’t get a break, not even when he bites the bullet and goes home to his parents. But it’s not that life’s giving him a raw deal. He’s getting one opportunity after another and he throws each one away, resulting in a film that’s engrossing, fascinating, funny, and terrifying all at once.
The 411: Factotum is an anti-Rocky, in which we see someone getting chances to succeed in life and he fails to take those chances, or even see them. Matt Dillon is terrific as Henry Chinaski, our anchor through this tale of the darker, much less glamorous side of writing, which is what we are all in danger of falling into whenever we have to sit down and work. This is required viewing for anyone who ever felt the urge to write anything at all, whether it was a short story, novel, column, screenplay, play or poem. I now have something to add for whenever I pray: “Please keep me focused. Please keep me from ending up like him.”
