Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Ann Magnuson, Aunjanue Ellis, Tamara Tunie, Anthony Michael Hall, Colm Feore
Director: Kasi Lemmons
Producers: Elie Samaha, Andrew Stevens, Stacey Sher, Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg, Scott Frank
Screenplay: George Dawes Green, based on his novel
Cinematography: Amelia Vincent
Music: Terence Blanchard
U.S. Distributor: Universal Focus
The detective genre has always been a popular one, from the days when Wilkie Collins "invented" it with The Moonstone to the contemporary works of P.D. James, Ruth Rendell, Sue Grafton, and hundreds of others. Movies have been no less fascinated with detectives than novels, and The Caveman's Valentine is just the latest in a long line of detective/mystery thrillers. This is the sophomore effort from director Kasi Lemmons, who was responsible for the surprising and subtle Eve's Bayou. However, very little of what made her first effort such a success is evident here. In fact, the only noteworthy aspect of The Caveman's Valentine is Samuel L. Jackson's performance. It's not representative of his greatest work, but it is thoroughly watchable.
The film introduces us to a New York City homeless man, Romulus Ledbetter (Jackson), who has been living in a cave in a Manhattan park since he lost his grip on reality. Once a Julliard student, Romulus is now a crusader against the evils of big business - a paranoid schizophrenic who wanders the city preaching about how Big Brother is watching. His daughter, a New York cop, does her best to pretend that Romulus doesn't exist - until the day when he finds a frozen body outside of his cave and calls upon her to help. However, when the police rule the death accidental, Romulus suddenly turns into Sherlock Holmes and begins his own investigation of what he believes to have been a murder.
A murder mystery with a paranoid schizophrenic might be an interesting topic for a movie, but not as it's presented here. In the first place, Romulus' sudden investigative instincts, and the personality transformation that results from them, isn't just poorly motivated - it's not motivated at all. It makes no sense whatsoever that this man would go out and look into this murder, and even less sense that most of the symptoms of his mental illness would conveniently fade into the background while he's on the case. Another problem in the credibility department is that the police give him carte blanche and that he's able to use his past connections from Julliard (along with his dubious charm) to worm his way into the upper echelons of New York society.
Some of those flaws might have been forgivable if the murder mystery was at least interesting, but it's not. Red herrings dot the landscape, but we're never engaged deeply enough by the character or the story to care. The best mysteries involve the viewer in the puzzle of their solution; when things come to a head in The Caveman's Valentine, the audience reaction is little more than a shrug. This "thriller" is more likely to lull viewers to sleep than to keep them on the edges of their seats. The real mystery surrounding The Caveman's Valentine is how such a promising director and accomplished actor could combine to produce such a lifeless and poorly-realized motion picture.
© 2001 James Berardinelli