Factotum

Factotum isn’t so much a story as a slice of life.

In this case, that slice happens to come from the world of writer Charles Bukowski, whose alter ego Henry Chinaski, played by Matt Dillon, drifts between jobs and women as he tries to get published.

The movie is all about mood and atmosphere. Dillon does a fantastic job, inhabiting the character without ever seeming to try, as do Lili Taylor and Marisa Tomei as two of Dillon’s character’s failed relationships. They all look and, more importantly, feel authentic as various casualties of life.

Director Bent Hamer and Jim Stark pack the script great bits of offbeat comedy and do a wonderful job of getting inside the head of a writer, as we feel Dillon’s character’s compulsion to get the words down on paper, and his overwhelming respect for the craft. The jobs, relationships, and drinks are little more than a means to keep writing.

If Factotum has a fault, it’s in its location. Shot in Minnesota, the film feels as though it should be set in Baltimore, Detroit, or a similar city with a larger cinematic identity. The city itself should figure prominently in the story, and the Minnesota locales are neither dark enough nor claustrophobic enough to add anything to the atmosphere.