The Mystery of How To Screw A Good Story Up

 I Always Want To Like Movies in Pittsburgh, But…

Mysteries of Pittsburgh (2008) – During the last summer before he graduates, Art Bechstein takes the easiest job he can find. While he’s there, things get complicated. A group of new friends takes his life into a new direction. A direction for which no one is prepared.

Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber

Starring Jon Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sienna Miller, Nick Nolte

Why I Liked It – Pittsburgh!

I’m still trying to figure out if there is someone in this movie I’m supposed to like. So far, no luck. Art is the main character, and he is a weak, directionless zero. Dominated by his powerful crime boss father, he lets everyone in his life push him around. Jane is a beautiful, talented, and intelligent young woman who has no center inside those traits. It truly appears she can only relate to the men in her life through sex. Whenever she tries anything else, it falls apart. Her boyfriend is Cleveland. I need to be honest here. I wanted to punch Cleveland in the face. Repeatedly. He’s an arrogant, manipulative jerk. He’s a user from the moment he gets out of bed in the morning until he collapses at the end of the day. Weak-willed people, like Art and Jane, fall easily under his sway. Neither of them can see it, even when he rubs their noses in it. They continue to throw themselves at him for his shallow impression of “love”. I was appalled to see Cleveland described elsewhere as “adventurous”. He is a classic narcissist.

All of that makes this a hard movie to like. It’s slow, it wanders. I never found a reason to be interested in the characters or what happens to them. In a few ways, it reminds me of “The Great Gatsby”. There you also find a central character without principles, another whose identity they form, and a beautiful young woman drifting along. She is more of an object than a person. The book is a fabulous piece of art about terrible people. This movie is a tepid and tedious slog about equally awful people. Which is too bad, as the original novel by Michael Chabon was a bestseller.  Without the emotional connection to the characters, the ending is limp and uninspiring.  We are supposed to be moved, shocked, and are left with “Is it done yet?”

Jon Foster is OK as Art. Peter Sarsgaard is fine as the odious Cleveland. They only asked Sienna Miller to be decorative and she does that, but brings nothing else to the role. Even Nick Nolte, in a classic Nolte role as the mobster father, barely raises the temperature here.

You can watch “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” on Pluto TV, Amazon Prime, and Freevee.

Rating – ** Not Impressed