A biopic about expressionist and abstract painter Jackson Pollock. While living as a struggling artist in New York, he meets painter Lee Krasner and starts a relationship with her. His painting draw the interest of Howard Putzel and Peggy Guggenheim, who organize an exhibit of his art. His paintings aren't selling, so Pollock and Krasner move to a small house in the countryside and get married, but Krasner says she doesn't want to have a baby with him. After an interview for Life magazine, the interest for his art improves. He discovers a new technique of pouring paint over a canvas on the floor. However, his alcoholism ruins him, and his friend tells him his art isn't in fashion anymore. Pollock has an affair with Ruth Kligman. While driving drunk, Pollock dies in a car crash with Edith, while Ruth survives.
The directorial debut film of actor Ed Harris, who also plays the leading role, "Pollock" is a solid biopic about the famous abstract painter Jackson Pollock, concise and objective, without any sentimentality, but also without any major creative lift-offs or outstanding highlights. Everything is done correctly, honestly and genuinely, yet it is still rather too standard. The two leading performers, Harris and Marcia Gay Harden, deliver strong performances as Pollock and his wife Lee Krasner, respectively. It's not quite clear why she would stay with an alcoholic with bizarre outbursts of rage and wild behavior, except that she considers him a great artist, and thus tries to endure all of his escapades. In one moment, Krasner finally admits why she doesn't want a baby with him: "And I don't want to be anywhere else, I don't want to be with anyone else. But that's all I can handle." Later, after Pollock was already gone fully crazy from alcohol (Harris even gains weight for this final segment), there is another revealing fight between them: "You open that mouth again, I'll kill you!" - "You *are* killing me!" The drama is luckily restrained, but considering that Pollock's paintings were so wildly unusual and creative, one could have expected that Harris would have directed the movie in something beyond the usual and routine.
Grade:++
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