Suffering Man's Charity (2007) User Reviews

Alan Cumming is over the top and it's not always good

[aussiefilmlover · 6/10 · 11 July 2007]

Saw this at the SF LGBT film festival and while Alan Cumming is wonderful and truly talented actor, he seems to be best with a director other than himself. This is a truly over the top movie and performance and it is entertaining but I felt there wasn't enough build up and character development before the insane behavior begins. Also the ending seemed tacked on and not really well connected to the main part of the film. the interaction between David and Alan are wonderful and the highlight of the film.

Henry Thomas was a surprise in this scene and Karen Black stole her scene. I wish there had been more restraint in the editing, the performances and the script. It made me want to see Alan Cumming as a lead in film with a different director.

Good Film For What it Was, May Not Appeal to Many

[gavin6942 · 6/10 · 16 December 2008]

Sebastian St. Germain (David Boreanz) is a struggling writer who isn't familiar with Becket (the writer of "Waiting for Godot"). This angers his host, the opera fanatic Jon Vandermark (Alan Cumming). When Sebastian can't make any payments and his writing career appears to be going nowhere, Jon takes drastic measures to get even.

This is a first film for writer Tom Gallagher, and is directed by the star, Alan Cumming. The writing and acting is excellent. For the right people, this film is going to hit home. I personally enjoyed it, and my girlfriend was liking it as well, despite not generally being a fan of movies. Where the film runs into snags, I fear, is the subject matter.

The dialogue is very heavy with references to Becket, various operas, and other pieces of literary and "high" culture. By no means do I consider myself sophisticated, but I do have a basic background in the liberal arts. I am not sure if those with less interest in literature or the arts would take much liking to the movie. The plot is pretty basic, and Boreanz is an amazing actor (Cumming is great, too). But without the dialogue, the film falls somewhat flat -- particularly in a scene where Sebastian is quizzed on a variety of topics, such as Jack Kerouac.

I would like to give the film a second viewing now that I know where it ultimately goes, and if possible get more insight from the creators. I feel the film is meant to be very deep despite being a relatively simple storyline. If there's some deeper sense, I have missed it. Perhaps it is an homage to some great literary work? This would be appropriate, but if so it was over my head.

I recommend this film for horror and thriller fans, although you won't get much in the way of gore or many scares. It's more of a violent drama. (The film is classified as "horror" or "black comedy", but it's hard to fit it neatly into either slot.) If nothing else, this film is worth your rental... you may be surprised where it goes.

Suffering Man's Charity 2007

[mtringali-2 · 5/10 · 6 December 2007]

There is only one reason to see this film - David BOREANAZ! The plot seems typically reasonable, but writing or directing over the top should not impede a good play or movie. There is no need to act as though everyone is without morals or merit. A well-executed comedy should be able to reach everyone without using one expletive word. Seinfeld's comedy was always outrageous, but within the acceptable guidelines, and this is the kind of comedic writing that many new artists never understand. Without vulgarity or graphic violence, most writers have no idea how to entertain people anymore. David is always wonderful in whatever he does. He has timing, looks, charm, and savoir faire. Cummings, go back to Creative writing class 101 and this time, pay attention.

Even the greats have to whore themselves

[NJMoon · 3/10 · 26 April 2009]

Alan Cumming was great as the Emcee in Broadway's CABARET but here he whores himself out as actor AND director in an over-done, over-acted, nearly unwatchable thriller about an over-sexed writer (David Boreanaz) and a prissy music teacher (Cumming). As co-producer Cumming also calls in markers from the likes of Carrie Fisher, Jane Lynch, Anne Heche, Henry Thomas and Karen Black for cameos so short they couldn't possibly know the completed film would be so in-your-face awful. Black is especially cringe-worthy as a drunken whore. If you get off on seeing Boreanaz in skimpy ladies underwear, tied up with Christmas lights, this film might be worth a fast-forward; otherwise exorcise this GHOST.

overacting for script just looks like overacting

[memfree · 2/10 · 11 April 2007]

This film needed some combination of the following : a separate director that was NOT starring in the film, sympathetic characters, multi-dimensional characters, less overacting, a bigger budget, more people involved in the creation, and/or FILM source with good image quality. Any of the listed items could be overcome in different circumstances, but here they are all piled on.

I appreciate that the main character was meant to be someone who acts out his own life in overblown, dramatic excess. I appreciate that this character is intentionally not a likable person. Such things are valid and interesting choices to try, but they are challenges that require a LOT of feedback and careful planning to make a film that works. That seemed absent.

Instead, what we have here is a piece which leaves the impression that the actor (and director), Alan Cumming, does not know how to tone it down.

We only see one side of each character, and none seem to progress or change in any meaningful way. And no, changing address or circumstance does not count -- the characters never seem to learn anything.

All the audience gets is nasty people who never get better as they do things we can not care much about, and doing them in a somewhat absurdist way. Yes, there are some amusing scenarios, but all the negatives overwhelm occasional positives.

Total Rubbish

[BoringBoo · 1/10 · 14 September 2008]

I did not enjoy this film, it seemed like it was sewn together and totally taken over by Cumming. This actor I feel is completely over-rated in my opinion so to see him acting in a film he had also directed was a bit much as it was all "Me, me, me!" I know the whole plot centres around his character, but there was no depth to it and it fell flat.

A gay music teacher (Cummings) who picks up hustlers on a regular basis and gives them free bed and board and the use of his whole home and fixtures, finds out this young attractive man, whom he likens to "Warren Beatty in Splendour in the Grass," (David Boreanaz)has been hustling him and goes completely over the top. The acting is really terrible from Cummings and his accent sounded like it was based on watching Dustin Hoffman films.

The plot was very sketchy and I watched it thinking it was going to end, but it didn't, it seemed to rattle on forever, even though it is a relatively short film. I would not call this comedy, nor would I call it horror, more like "Sufference" as in that's what most people are enduring while watching this piece of tripe.

To me, Boreanaz in women's underwear and tied to a chair was someone's fantasy, director maybe? It had no point whatsoever. I know there are a lot of David Boreanaz fans out there, but please avoid this film like the plague, it is best forgotten, even if you do get to see his bottom a couple of times.

"There are two C's in Cock." I don't get it.

[poolandrews · 3/10 · 19 December 2009]

Suffering Man's Charity is set in Los Angeles where the slightly demented music teacher John Vandermark (director Alan Cumming) lives in a big house left to him by his mother, a young struggling writer named Sebastian (David Borneanaz) also lives there after John had taken pity on him. However Sebastian is taking liberties with John's kind hospitality running up large phone bills & never paying a penny for anything, John has had enough of Sebastian & his leeching & decides to confront him. Things turn nasty & after John completely loses it Sebastian ends up dead, wanting to get something back from Sebastian John passes his novel off as his own & strikes a lucrative book deal with a New York publisher but the ghost of Sebastian starts to haunt John...

More commonly known under the title Ghost Writer this was directed by & staring British comedian & actor Alan Cumming this is a really strange one that I don't quite know how to sum up or even comment on, for me it's a complete turkey but I guess there might be an audience out there for it somewhere. To be honest I don't get Suffering Man's Charity at all, by that I mean I understand the plot & what happens but I don't understand it thematically or who it would or is meant to appeal too. According to the IMDb this is a horror comedy but I am struggling to think of a single funny moment during the thing & as for being a horror film there's a small subplot about a ghost but nothing else as far as I could see. I really don't know how to describe this film or what genre to assign it. To my eyes the whole thing feels like it is supposed to be a dark comedy but as I said it's not funny at all & while it's definitely different, quirky & off-beat that doesn't mean it's any good which I don't think it is. Overall Suffering Man's Charity didn't do anything for me & while there might be a small audience out there for it I can't see it appalling to the common person at all.

This is well shot & looks decent enough but not much more, there's nothing scary or atmospheric here & no real horror. There's a gay kiss thing going on at the end which is slightly disturbing as it comes out of nowhere but overall this is pretty forgettable stuff.

With a supposed budget of about $3,000,000 this was shot in Los Angeles & is well made. The actors play everything over the top with a bizarre performance from Cumming while Borneanaz gets to dress up in a bra & Panties with Carrie Fisher & Anne Heche in small cameo roles.

Suffering Man's Charity is a strange film that almost defies description & is hard to categorize, personally I didn't like it at all & just didn't get what the makers were aiming for. Not my type of film at all & I doubt it would appeal to the majority.

Valiant but misconceived thriller...

[MrGKB · 5/10 · 1 December 2010]

...that seems more of a vanity project for director/star, Alan "X2" Cumming than anything else, and what a vanity project it is, or isn't, depending on your perspective. The script is from a noob screenwriter, and it's a step above many, though not nearly as clever as it might otherwise wish. It takes way too long to get down to business (Syd Field would not be pleased), and has a tendency to spoil its own mysteries. In a nutshell, Cumming overacts a martinet of a private music teacher with a weakness for "nurturing" various young talents, in this case a ladies man of a writer who ends up grifting him to the point of histrionic vengeance. It's not a pretty sight (in fact, it's laden with homosexual clichés, beginning with their love of opera, and not yet ending with a macho man in bra and panties), and does nothing to advance the situation or audience appreciation of its protagonist or anyone else within earshot. As mentioned, the acting (and this is mostly all Cumming's baby) verges on hysterically overdone (or in the case of the antagonist (David "Angel" Boreanaz), crushingly underplayed to the point of apparent boredom), although (for the most part) the various production elements are fairly well done, given the relative low budget. Minimal appearances by the likes of Henry "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" Thomas, Carrie "Star Wars" Fisher, Anne "Psycho" Heche (looking exceedingly pinched and drawn), and Karen "Easy Rider" Black (who utterly steals her scene as a foul-mouthed slut) cannot rescue this potboiler no matter the best of intentions.

Strictly for Cumming fans, and even they will be, at best, bemused.

This is dark humor, not horror. For fans of John Waters, not John Carpenter.

[McCamyTaylor · 7/10 · 25 August 2013]

Sometimes, getting stuck into the wrong genre can kill a film. If you watch this one expecting to see a horror flick, you will be so disappointed by the end that you will want your 90 minutes back.

First, the bad. In the early parts of the movie, everyone (including the director who should know better) say their lines as if they are on a stage rather than inside your television. Everyone, that is, except for the delightful girl playing the violin. I just love her. I suspect that the "we are taking part in a stage play" acting/cinematography was deliberate, since you could make an intellectual argument that it feeds into the theme of empty people trying to fill their lives with art. However, intellectual concepts about art do not always make good art. I recommend that anyone making a movie pay careful attention in the editing room. If it does not look good there, it won't look good in the finished project, no matter how brilliant the director/star's mental footnotes.

Now, onto the fun parts. If you do not get to see Angel from Buffy dressed in women's underwear, wrapped in Christmas lights, strapped to a chair being tormented by Alan Cummings, you have missed one of life's joys---much like Honey Badger as in "Honey Badger don't give a s**t." Sometimes, poor taste is what we need to slap us awake and make us pay attention. This scene is character John Vandermark's masterpiece. It is low brow, silly, horrifying, ohmygodIcantbelievehedidthat art, but it is art. And John is rewarded with fame, riches and the undivided attention of the object of his love returned from the grave as a ghost. Too bad he is now a hollow shell of a man (literally) by movie's end.

Best lines in the movie. Girl playing violin asks what that smell is. John replies that it is "passion". She counters that it's not, it smells like her dead hamster.

John Waters understands that sometimes art smells like a dead hamster.

Wonderfully over-the-top dark comedy

[sftiger · 10/10 · 20 June 2007]

This movie is pure grand guignol with obvious references to "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" and "Sunset Boulevard." If you enjoy shrill, histrionic, over the top, morbid, nasty, vicious humor you'll love Alan Cumming's directorial debut.

Purely on the technical merits, this film would deserve no more than 7 out of ten stars, maybe even a mere 4, but it has the madness, the idiosyncratic verve to become a camp cult classic. Cumming's performance is a bit of PeeWee Herman as Norma Desmond, but when you think he's pulled out all the stops, Karen Black takes it to the next level, and then.... well, it just gets madder and madder.

While it is clearly not for everyone, "Suffering Man's Charity" is an absolute treat for the right -- or perhaps a very wrong -- mindset.

Thin Plot Fantastic Performance

[here_it_is_again · 8/10 · 6 December 2008]

Before watching this film I thought it could go one of two ways, either be genius or be awful. It did neither and both.

The plot was thin and not particularly rewarding, the character David Boreanaz played was weak and his acting was, as to be expected, fairly mediocre.

So why have I given it 8 out of 10? Alan Cummings' performance was pure magic. In the previous review this was a criticism which surprises me. The reviewer is correct, it is dramatic, overblown and extremely theatrical, and as previously said, he isn't and is not meant to be a likable character but that doesn't make him any less of an interesting character to watch. You're given the sense that as the character becomes more and more dramatic and over-the-top, he couldn't stop himself if he tried or wanted to.

The entire performance is an interesting portrayal of passion, rejection and obsession that in my opinion makes up for the weakness of the plot and surrounding characters. More theatrical than big screen but a fantastic performance by Alan Cummings regardless.

I am somewhat horrified, but I LOVED this movie!

[myprivatequarters · 10/10 · 24 June 2010]

Someone, please call me a psychiatrist! I loved this movie, and haven't laughed this much in a long time! It's like a car accident on the highway; you don't want to look, but you just can't help yourself!Think Rocky Horror Picture Show meets Misery.

Alan Cummings is SO over the top, it's hysterical. You kind of WANT to feel sorry for him at the beginning, but there is just nothing truly redeeming about his character. I loved the way he got his comeuppance in the end.

David Boreanaz is good throughout, but particularly in the latter part of the movie, which he seems to embrace with unabashed glee.

If you like camp and bizarre humor, this is a movie you should definitely check out!