Simple Men

Last year, the Rotterdam Film Festival presented a complete retrospective of the promising young director Hal Hartley. With Simple Men, Hartley has proven his promise.It is the story of a quest for love and warmth. The petty thief Bill McCabe is cheated twice by his girlfriend: she takes off with his companion and takes the loot too. Bill’s younger brother, the student Dennis, persuades him to join him in looking for their father, who has escaped from jail. This ‘former-shortstop turned anarchist-folk-hero’ must be somewhere on Long Island. Bill has told his brother that he has renounced love and that in future he will only use a woman and then take to his heels. On their way, the boys meet Kate, an attractive divorcee who runs a local bar. Despite his good intentions, Bill instantly falls in love with her. Dennis has meanwhile met and now desires a Rumanian girl. The longer the brothers delay their departure, the more their dreams are threatened by reality.Reviewers praised Simple Men for the sharp dialogues, the camera-work the bright red and blue seem to refer back to Godard +!+ the structure of the plot and the rhythm of the cutting. The acting is very refined, especially the role of Bill, played by Robert Burke who also played the lead in Hartley’s feature-film debut The Unbelievable Truth. Hartley himself characterised the film as ‘a romance with an attitude problem’. Todd McCarthy (Variety) wrote: ‘Simple Men possesses exceptional literary qualities, as well as an emotional resonance new for the director.’