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Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman:
Ryan has no real sense of how to craft a story from behind the camera. She also
switches point-of-view and introduces dream sequences and hallucinatory images
at odd moments. The stylistic mishmash is jarring to say the least. Even the
performances – usually a strong point for actors-turned-directors – are leaden,
with only Sam Shepard’s turn as the town’s drunken chief telegraph
operator coming close to conveying the gravitas this wannabe prestige picture is
desperately striving to achieve. Duane Byrge, The Hollywood Reporter:
Filmed previously as The Human Comedy in 1943, this rebirth is almost
a casebook study of how not to transpose "literature" to film. A heartfelt yet
sodden directorial debut by Meg Ryan, "Ithaca" is wordy and static. Saroyan's
novel was a sharp smear on the fragility of life in a world of wild extremes and
shifting circumstances. Unfortunately, the film's drama is enervated by
incessant voiceover, background radio, newsreels, out-loud letter readings and
other noise...
While wordy, Ithaca is nearly bereft of everyday dialogue: Erik Jendresen's
script, focusing on the philosophical queries, crushes the human intrigue. Amid
these drones, nothing feels or sounds natural, which is particularly egregious
since Saroyan's book imparted a real sense of place.
One of the few moments the film actually entertains comes when the elderly
alcoholic telegrapher imparts sage, crusty wisdom to eager-beaver Homer. On this
plus side, not only have the filmmakers used the historical back-road sites of
Virginia for their filming, they have picked up the formidable talents of
local-yokel Sam Shepard. Costumed in Harold Lloyd-type period glasses and
swiveling around in his telegrapher's chair, Shepard infuses the proceedings
with some comic relief and perspective. His bits stand out: Shepard's soft,
creaky voice, mixed with intermittent high-pitched punctuation, give you the
feeling that this guy could do a helluva W.C. Fields. Unfortunately, those kinds
of attention drifts are unintended but necessary to endure the rest of what's
onscreen...
Visually, the film is too tightly wound: Ryan's character positioning is
glaringly stagey, while the film's overall look is drab. Its production and
costume palette consists of dull, earth tones, which are further dulled by
cinematographer Andrew Dunn's murky lensing. On the near-plus side, John
Mellencamp's string-swept score grates and swirls, both ascendant and funereal,
nicely amplifying the characters' tribulations. The
Examiner:
Moving at the speed of growing grass, not much happens in "Ithaca", and thus not
much happens to Homer. And yet his perspective on life in his hometown shifts
considerably darker, becoming more disillusioned as time goes on. Some of it can
be attributed to the letters from his brother, and the growing sense that he may
die for some unknowable cause. The others are the death notices from the
military that he's forced to deliver in his new job, exacerbated by Homer's
laughable inability to simply deliver the messages and leave. Instead, he's
brought inside to literally read the letters aloud to one lady, while in another
instance he's delivering the bad news during a birthday party.
Another problem is the combination of Erik Jendressen's
on-the-nose screenplay, adapted from William Saroyan's novel "The Human Comedy",
and Ryan's equally obvious direction. Between the two of them there's a tug of
war between Homer's stilted dialogue ("I'll spit at the world if he dies!") and
overdone expressions of emotion, such as when he literally spits at the world
soon after. Ryan can't do anything about the script, but learning to get the
best out of her actors will come with more experience. Pros like Shepard
and Linklater handle themselves well, especially Shepard as the wizened old
drunkard who takes on a mentorship role for Homer at a time when he desperately
needs it. Daniel S. Levine, The Celebrity Cafe:
The film’s production design is also rather drab and looks like an attempt
to make moving Norman Rockwell paintings. While the period details are there,
the film still looks too quickly thrown together. The one war scene looks like
it was shot in front of a black screen and the smoke was supposed to cover it
up. Ryan said during a post-screening Q&A that the film was shot in just 23 days
(the war scene was shot in two hours!) and it sure looks like it.
Ryan might have an ability to direct and you can’t fault her for trying to bring
a story she was passionate about to the big screen. But "Ithaca" is so bland and
so unfocused that it fails to give any evidence that Ryan found a new voice as a
director. Todd Jorgenson, D Magazine:
While Neustaedter makes Homer’s wide-eyed charisma endearing and Shepard
lends his scenes a certain level of gravitas, the didactic narration
aggressively pushes its pearls of wisdom beyond all credibility. The source
material, written in the 1940s, drew inspiration from Homer’s Odyssey and
was more relevant to its time. This muddled adaptation too often feels like it’s
moving in slow motion and suggests the material might have worked best as a
short, despite its star power.
Joe Leydon, Variety:
"Ithaca" unfolds at a steady pace
that, truth to tell, makes the movie seem longer than it is. Worse, screen time
is not fairly apportioned — some interesting characters aren’t around nearly
often enough, while others either overstay their welcome, or aren’t welcome at
all. Chief among the latter: Homer’s dead father, who periodically appears as a
fond memory, or maybe a ghost, to Homer’s mom. It doesn’t help at all that this
apparition is played, almost entirely without dialogue, by Tom Hanks, whose
stunt casting distractingly recalls his more entertaining screen pairings with
Ryan in "You’ve Got Mail" and "Sleepless in Seattle." On the other hand,
Sam Shepard is so wonderfully engaging as the crusty Willie Grogan, an
avuncular alcoholic who spouts wisdom while sporting Harold Lloyd-type glasses,
you can’t help thinking that, in almost any other context, his performance might
generate award-season consideration. Matthew Anderson, CineVue:
Foremost in "Ithaca's" problems is a woeful script. Never wont to unduly
criticize a fellow writer, it's nevertheless very difficult to find any positive
comment to make about the dialogue offered to the big hitters on the bill here.
In letters received from Marcus, the phrase 'I wish there was no war' sums up
the very obvious anti-conflict sentiment though none of his suffering is shown.
Through other eye-rollingly bad moments we finally hit rock bottom with 'There
will always be pain in this world.' Looks of indignation on the faces of a cast
loathe to enunciate such drivel beg the question as to how the project proceeded
without going back to the drawing board. Despite having only a marginal role
herself, in trying so hard to be thought-provoking and profound, Ryan forgets to
develop character past the planning stages, resulting in no emotional
involvement at all.
Allan Brown, Movie Review World:
Despite its whimsical
nature, stilted dialogue and continual bombardment of oversentimentality, there
are some notable performances throughout. Willie (Sam Shepard) and Tom
(Hamish Linkletater) both shine as Homer's new bosses at the local telegraph
post. Their presence in the film adds a much needed injection of life and humor
into the proceedings... Despite the actors being plagued with stiff dialogue
exchanges from a screenplay that's almost impenetrable, Neustaedter and the
whole cast salvage what they can from it, and at times, even manage to evoke a
spark of emotion, in this overwise drab and confused drama.
Keith Watson, Slant Magazine:
The film is confused in conception, dreary in execution, and completely lacking
in forward momentum. Scenes drag on with no sense of purpose, while the actors
generally seem lost. The overall effect is like watching an early rehearsal for
a play, when the rhythms of a scene haven't yet been established and the actors
are still finding their characters. Nick Shager, Village
Voice:
Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks reunite for the first time since 1998's "You've Got Mail"
in "Ithaca" — the former's directing debut — but they're merely stick-figure
peripheral players in this egregiously clunky and phony coming-of-age story
based on William Saroyan's 1943 novel "The Human Comedy"... There's no rhythm to
any single scene in this hokey tale, nor to the way in which sequences have been
put together — the action is hopelessly ungainly... Set to a countrified score
by John Mellencamp that further douses everything in down-home treacle, it's the
rare film to miss its every mark.
Roger Moore, Movie Nation:
Sentimental and slow, this "Life on the Homefront" melodrama lacks the pathos
and punch of its predecessor... Young Neustaedter is properly sensitive, but
dull in a part that seems dulled down by the intervening decades. Mickey Rooney
played the kid in 1943, and gave him more of that antic spark of life that the
world has to beat out of him. Ryan so underplays the ongoing grief that her
character never once rises to "touching," something she’s been famous for
achieving all through her career. In the rest of the cast, only Shepard
stands out, a sauced sage who dodges the “death” question from the kid with a
weary wit. Claudia Puig, The Wrap:
Meg Ryan‘s choice of literary adaptation for her directorial debut may have been
too ambitious: The overall effect, while earnest, is disjointed, dreary and
oddly structured. Seemingly pointless scenes drag. The characters feel like
cardboard cutouts, and the story is so deliberately paced as to feel tedious...
Generally, scenes don’t flow smoothly, and the pacing and rhythm suffers. It
feels like key swaths have been edited out. The ending comes abruptly and
awkwardly. Joe Dziemianowicz, NY Daily News:
Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks have made movie magic together — but they can’t cast such
a spell with "Ithaca." ...Ryan’s debut as a director is a sketchy and starchy
film. When all is said and done, "Ithaca," like its messenger of death, just
spins its wheels. Kyle Smith, NY Post:
Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are together again, sort of, in the disappointing World
War II melodrama "Ithaca," a generous but sticky slice of American apple pie
that marks Ryan’s debut as a director... This movie is resolute about being as
homey and obvious as it can possibly be. Somewhere, Norman Rockwell is thinking,
"Sheesh, even I was edgier than this." Devan Coggan, EW:
Most of the headlines around Meg Ryan’s directorial debut, Ithaca, have
focused on the fact that it reunites Ryan with her frequent costar Tom Hanks.
But instead of giving the dynamic pair something to work with on screen, this
adaptation of William Saroyan’s novel The Human Comedy reduces Hanks to
what is essentially a spectral cameo, playing Ryan’s dead husband in a handful
of mostly wordless scenes. In all, Hanks’ casting feels like a missed
opportunity—much like the rest of Ithaca... Clunky dialogue and an
overreliance on voiceover prevent "Ithaca" from ever becoming more than a
predictable period piece. Hollywood-elsewhere.com:
"Ithaca", which screened tonight at the Middleburg Film Festival, isn’t good
enough to warrant a full review. It was shot too fast (23 days) for too little
money in Virginia, and I’m afraid that Ryan’s inexperience sealed its fate. I’m
sorry but that feeling when a movie isn’t cutting it is unmistakable. Ithaca
lacks tension and at times clarity; it seems under-energized, even amateurish at
times.
Steven Armour, Serving Cinema:
Scarcely seen on screen in the past decade, Meg Ryan has joined the ranks of
A-list stars trying their hand at directing with her feature film debut
Ithaca, a period drama set in 1942 in the wake of the attack on Pearl
Harbor and America’s subsequent decision to join the allies in the Second World
War. Though dutiful in its treatment of the subject at hand, Ithaca is
ultimately devoid of any authorial stamp or stylistic flare, proving a
pedestrian first foray behind the camera by Ryan that may also be her last.
"Ithaca" is as predictable as it is emotionally hollow, destined to
disappear in to the annals of forgotten directorial efforts from actors not up
to the challenge... Sam Shepard is the only character of much note in the
film, and even then the role isn’t much of a stretch for an actor of his
caliber. |
