Echo Park is a bizarre and meandering film that continually defies expectations. It is entertaining in its flaunting of conventionality yet ultimately unsatisfying in its dramatic and its comedic aspects. The love triangle never builds any poignancy or any real interest, even, while the laughs come only sporadically. What are we to make of the opening and closing sequences involving the bodybuilder's father? Does the alpine frolic at the end suggest that the Ahnult wannabe has successfully rewritten his past? Has his friendship with Tom Hulce and Susan Dey allowed him to re-conceptualize his origins, transforming the nightmare of blood and sausages into a "Sound of Music" dreamscape?
Review of Echo Park
