I like the music and the composition of frames. I like scenes like the first one involving Cleveland, Story and apartment tenant Anna Ran unfolding clues about the Guild, Guide and Symbolist. Most of all, I like Paul Giamatti and his sad, resigned apartment complex manager.
This is really Cleveland Heep’s story. The narfs, the scrunts, the visionary writer – they are vessels of the story, or intentional distractions from it. When we learn that Story has come to see (or be seen by) a writer, we presume he is the Important Central Human Character. But he turns out to be a side character, just one of the many eclectic people who populate the apartment complex.
The writer isn’t Cleveland, whose past and present turn out to be quite different from each other. He’s like many people – changed by circumstances beyond his control, heavily laden with guilt, and he has settled into a belief that he is of no particular value. His pain and gentle concern for Story stirred me, and still do. Giamatti anchors the film, and if you focus more on him you find at least one story worth listening to: that of Cleveland Heep. I am happy his is on my DVD shelf, should I want to revisit it again.
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