Six Ways To Sunday . The Boston Phoenix . 06-07-99

Six Ways To Sunday

DIRECTED BY: Adam Bernstein

REVIEWED: 06-07-99

Music-video auteur Adam Bernstein wrote and directed this moody, lethargic tale of a teenager headed to hell in a handbasket. Eighteen-year-old Harry (indie up-and-comer Norman Reedus) spends his days flipping burgers and his nights keeping his protective, housebound mother (Deborah Harry) company. When hophead homeboy Arnie (Adrien Brody) hooks him up with some small-time Jewish gangsters, the young goy learns he has a talent for breaking noses. He starts earning big bucks, then falls for his new boss's crippled maid (Nadja's Elina Löwensohn). For some reason, Harry's mom, a former lounge singer, has no problem with his being a hired killer but is livid about his girlfriend.

Based on Charles Perry's novel Portrait of a Young Man Drowning, this film has a hip, neo-noir look and some impressive acting that's dimmed by molasses-slow pacing, clumsy dialogue, and heavy-handed Oedipal content. Reedus is like Leo DiCaprio's dark twin, and Brody is electrifying, but Ms. Harry's performance is dull as dishwater and redeemed only by the Blondie songs on the soundtrack.

--Peg Aloi

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Six Ways To Sunday

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Six Ways To Sunday

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