The Caveman's Valentine (2001)

Lack of good storyline.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The Caveman's Valentine has always fascinated me. As someone who has a mental illness, I've always tried my best to seek out films that portray such conditions in a respectable, inquisitive and enlightening tone. While this one cushions it's earnestness with a slightly lurid and generic murder mystery, much of its desire to explore its character's inner mindset shine through superbly and with much more authenticity than other films that try the same. Unless you suffer through, or have some intimate experience with someone like this protagonist, it's tough to artistically represent their state. This one manages very well, and Samuel L. Jackson gives one of the most memorable, affecting and curiously overlooked performances of his career so far. Jackson is an actor who almost always gets cast in assured, authoritative roles. Here he portrays exactly the opposite of that as Romulus, a severely schizophrenic man who lives in a cave in Central Park, New York City. Romulus was once a brilliant pianist and a student at Juilliard, before his illness cut his career and personal life painfully short. He spends his days in confusion, raving in delusion about an all powerful man named Stuyvesant who secretly manipulates everyone in the city. When a young man is found murdered near his cave door, he feels an internal compulsion to find out what happened to him. As you might imagine, a man with his affliction might not make the most reliable detective, but Romulus tries his best and in between bouts of paranoia he makes his way towards weirdo avant grade photographer David Leppenraub (always excellent Colm Feore) who may have had something to do with the homicide. He also has a daughter (Aunjanue Ellis) who is a policewoman and somewhat resents him through her ignorance, and a wife (Tamara Tunie) who no doubt left, but still speaks to him in segments of his visions. Because his perceptions can't be trusted, even by himself, it makes it a touch and go plot-line that's heavily accented by frequent visual detours into his own consciousness, where humanoid Moth Sarefs hauntingly play unearthly instruments. Director Kasi Lemmons is not only a woman, but an actress herself, both traits which I believe lead to a certain intuitive advantage in filmmaking. I absolutely love how she moulds the narrative to patiently linger with Romulus's perception of events and never make them sensationalistic or rushed. Even though Romulus walks through a dangerous, real world story of murder and corruption, the film always sticks with his childlike, abstract and very intangible internal view of the world, a choice which most films either don't possess the courage or aren't allowed to do. Jackson is subtle, complex dynamite in what is for me the best work of his career, playing completely against type and most definitely the opposite of his usual instincts to give us something truly special, to any viewer who wishes to exhibit the same patience and understanding that the filmmakers have strived for in making this unique piece.

Let it be clarified that this is not a film about a murder mystery. This is a film about a man named Romulus, a genius gone mad, with plenty of heart and truth still left in him that others refuse to see. It just so happens that his redemption comes in the form of his getting caught up in a murder mystery.And really, the way it all goes is pretty perfect. Everything in this film was done right. I haven't been left speechless by a movie in quite some time.Watch this film - and without spoiling anything, I want to address some other comments people have left either in a review or in the forum. Some have said that the central focus of Rom's craziness (the man in the building he thinks is watching his every move) is presented and resolved ambiguously and without any clarity. I don't understand how this could have been misunderstood. Take everything in throughout this film. The sights, the sounds, the pacing - the answer to that question is pretty clear by the time you're a good ways into the film. What's more, the film holds your hand out of it, with a CLEAR and SPOKEN answer at the end of the film (the bar scene).Anyway, great, great film. 8/10

Wow… I don't care what people think about Samuel L. Jackson, that man is amazing. This film shows his versatility something fierce.This is a great film about a man named Romulus who most would consider homeless. But in the film, if you called him homeless he gets mad because he actually lives in a cave by a little park. He's a used-to-be musician who ends up going insane and can't finish school. He ends up finding a dead man, and is convinced that he knows who killed him. He spends most of the film trying to prove it while also battling the things inside his crazy head.The entire story is told amazingly unique. His character was very strange, and the way the director portrayed what Romulus was thinking was innovative, as well as straight forward. You need to see this film.

Sam J. (jees! what an actor), one more time simply becomes the character the tale requires. Where the "bleep" are all his awards? Nevermind ...It's a murder mystery. No not that kind. The sleuth here is mental case who lives in a dome of rocks in a park. Except he's a musical genius who is in constant battle with some kind of mind controlling rays from a Capitalist Wizard named Inversol (or something like that) abiding in an ivory tower over looking the city. Wait, wait ... it's about his impossible relationship with his daughter. No, wait ... it's about this mental being the one to figure out the "who dunnit". Except he isn't mental, is he? Society is mental or is it what passes for society? Or not.And it's about art using the human psyche as its canvas and when art wanders over a cliff.Can you imagine an actor the caliber of Samuel Jackson reading this script and nodding? It's as wacky as its title. But watch him do it, watch him bring Romulus Ledbetter to life.The movie would have been decent with another talented actor in the lead but SJ set the character on fire and set it in concrete.The film's problem? Samuel Jackson's performance elevated the bar to a level the rest of the movie didn't see coming. So while the movie is better than it should have been, it seems to miss its bullseye at the same time.With just a bit of tweaking, anticipating the Romulus Ledbetter SJ would create, "The Caveman's Valentine" would have found itself sharing shelf space with genuine classics.Absolutely ... WOW!