Based in part on the memoir of the same name by John Callahan, writer and director Gus Van Sant’s sometimes overstylized “Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot” (“On Foot”) hits a few narrative bumps on its way to a triumphant third act, making this the filmmaker’s finest effort since “Good Will Hunting” in 1997.
Physically Abled Might Be Offended
One panel shows three lawmen in a desert standing over a wheelchair with one speaking the line that also serves as the film’s title. Other frequent subjects include house pets, religion, and alcoholism, but mostly they were of individuals or groups with physical disabilities. Needless to say, many people, most of whom had no physical disabilities, took great offense at Callahan’s work. This begs more than a few questions.For the first 45 or so minutes, Van Sant’s movie more resembles a bebop jazz composition, which is aided greatly by an atypical score from composer Danny Elfman. Presented wildly out of sequence, this stretch covers the last few hazy, booze-fueled days prior to the car wreck that changed the 21-year-old Callahan’s life forever. In the years following the accident, he hit the bottle even harder, eventually bottoming out, before addressing his disease in group therapy.
Stock Characters
The weakest link in the narrative is the time spent with the therapy group, which is overpopulated with too-easy stock characters (an overweight girl, the angry veteran, the fey senior guy, and the privileged housewife). The exception here is a slimmed-down and bearded Jonah Hill as Donnie, a wealthy trust fund baby, who hosts the meetings in his house, which could best be described as decorated in Liberace light.Instead of the usual namby-pamby, there-there, treacle coating, Donnie speaks to his AA members (whom he lovingly refers to as “piglets”) with blunt, face-smacking directness. It is arguably the finest performance of Hill’s career.
Van Sant allows the story to breathe, never relying on the bells and whistles, and lets Phoenix strut his righteous stuff. “On Foot” has an organic and relaxed (not to be confused with safe) air.
Enter Love Interest
A man never fully at peace with his many demons, Callahan finally finds his calling and a (maybe fictional) romantic connection. Played by Phoenix’s off-screen love interest, Rooney Mara, the Swedish therapist-turned-flight-attendant Annu may or may not even be real, but it makes no difference as none of the other characters fit the same bill. It’s worth mentioning that Mara also appeared in the below-the-radar “Mary Magdalene” as the title character alongside Phoenix who portrayed Jesus Christ.
Also worth noting was the heavy protest levied against the production from the New England-based Ruderman Family Foundation, which had major (largely uninformed) issues with Callahan being portrayed by Phoenix rather than a real-life disabled actor.
