LEVITY
I hate it when actors that I really like appear in terrible movies. On paper Levity sounds like it might have something going for it. Billy Bob Thornton, an actor who in 2001 alone handed in three very good but very different performances in The Man Who Wasn’t There, Monster’s Ball and Bandits. He’s versatile and not afraid to take risks. Morgan Freeman is a journeyman who is always good, even when the material is beneath him. Director Ed Soloman is best known as a comedy writer, having made us giggle with the Bill and Ted movies as well as the first Charlie’s Angels film. Why then would he step out of his field to write and direct a painstakingly earnest movie about an ex-con’s search for redemption? And how is it possible to take two actors that I really like, Thornton and Freeman and make them almost unwatchable? This is what happens when an inexperienced director decides to make an art-house film. Don’t be fooled by the title, there isn’t a laugh in sight. The inappropriately named Levity limps along for ninety minutes, with the only compelling action happening just seconds before the credits roll. To paraphrase my co-host Geoff Pevere, the only thing this movie did was bring me 100 minutes closer to my death.
