4/10
The cast (minus it's lead) is the only good thing about it really.
16 May 2013
Warning: Spoilers
'A GLIMPSE INSIDE THE MIND OF CHARLES SWAN III': Two Stars (Out of Five)

Bad boy Charlie Sheen stars in this attempt at a comedy film written and directed by Roman Coppola. Coppola is the son of legendary film director Francis Ford Coppola and brother to the much more successful Sofia Coppola. He's also cousin to Nicolas Cage and Jason Schwartzman (Schwartzman co-stars in this film). His former writing credits include co-writing 'THE DARJEELING LIMITED' and 'MOONRISE KINGDOM' with Wes Anderson. Considering his family and impressive resume I expected a lot more from him. I also expected a lot more from a movie featuring this cast (which includes Bill Murray, Patricia Arquette, Aubrey Plaza and Mary Elizabeth Winstead) but the movie is a severe misfire. Anything featuring Charlie Sheen in the lead with multiple dream scenes and musical dance sequences should have spelled surefire doom though. The movie is really bad; the cast (minus it's lead) is the only good thing about it really.

The film is set in the 1970s and revolves around a graphic designer named Charles Swan III (Sheen). Charles was a pretty big ladies man until he suffered a mental breakdown after his most recent girlfriend, Ivana (the gorgeous Katheryn Winnick), dumped him. Now he spends most of his time recollecting on the past with his friend, Kirby (Schwartzman), and manager, Saul (Murray), while trying to figure out where things went so wrong. Most of his thoughts and visions are played out in fantasy dream sequences and many contain song and dance numbers.

The movie obviously had a lot of potential (the synopsis sounds great and the trailer made it look hilarious) but the execution is horrible. It has a few funny moments (mostly with Murray and Schwartzman) but they're way too few and far between. It would be easy to blame all of the movie's failings on it's star, Charlie Sheen, but it was mostly, most likely, it's writer/director's fault. When working with Anderson Coppola has shown some skill but he obviously wasn't ready to helm a movie like this (he has written and directed a feature film before, 2001's 'CQ', but I never saw it). I truly hope his next project is much better than this.

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