A struggling writer spends more time drinking than writing. Through his wandering misadventures, he meets a woman that has almost as little ambition as he does. Together, they share in each other’s pain and drown it away with alcohol.

I would love to tell you that this film is an important look at the American underbelly and the torment a gifted writer goes through when the society he grows up in doesn’t understand his pain. However, a better description would be that this film is about a drunk that has no purpose and whose life is anything but interesting.

I understand that Charles Bukowski is a well respected author in literary circles (although I’ve never been a fan), but the celluloid transfer just doesn’t work. In this case, the characters are not interesting at all and there’s nothing for the viewer to take interest in because all of the characters are unlikable at best. The main character was drinking his life away and yet we had no reason for his current status other than he was lazy. In order for an audience to root for or against a pathetic leading character, we need some sort of back-story to understand what we’re rooting for. In this case, I didn’t care if any of the characters lived or died.

I will say that the performances were top-notch. I’m not the biggest Matt Dillon fan in the world, but he did well in this role. Marisa Tomei is far too good of an actress to be relegated to minute roles like this, but it’s nice to see her back on the big screen. However, even the beautiful Ms. Tomei couldn’t prevent this film from being a complete bore.

Video: Widescreen (1.85:1): Not a bad transfer for an independent film. Minor grain and occasional haze added to the film’s effect.

Audio: English 5.1, with English and Spanish subtitles: Obviously, this is a dialogue driven film and rear channels are not utilized. However, the dialogue came through well on the front channels.

Making of Factotum (28:16): FACTOTUM is a Norwegian produced film and this little documentary is actually in Norwegian with English subtitles. Most of the focus is on Mr. Hamer. It’s a decent featurette, but it’s not going to give you any deep insight into the film.

There is also a Trailer and a Soundtrack promo

The characters were just too pathetic and uninteresting for me to care about. I’m sure some viewers will try to read more into this film, but this viewer didn’t enjoy it. I’d let this one stay on the shelf unless you’re a huge Matt Dillon fan.