Levity (2003)

★★★★
Levity is about a man with a wound so deep that he can't emerge from it and put the past behind him. Twenty-three years prior, Manuel Jordan (Billy Bob Thornton) killed a man in a robbery and spent those years behind bars. He admits that he likes prison, and he doesn't want to leave. He knows that he has done a terrible thing; he feels bad for it and having his life sentence shortened for good behavior was never his wish. As far as he's concerned, he deserves prison, but a review board doesn't agree. Manuel Jordan is a free man.

Manuel tells us about a book he read some time ago. There are five things a man can do to be redeemed. One of those five steps involves returning what he stole, but since he can't return a life he took, he's pretty much out of luck. He does feel that he can at least make amends with the sister of the young man he killed. She is Adele Easley (Holly Hunter), who lives with her son in a run-down part of town. When they meet, he doesn't reveal his crime to her at first. He simply offers small acts of kindness. She begins to warm up to him. Even if she doesn't know his name, there is something in Manuel's sad eyes that she finds relatable.

Manuel takes up shelter in a community center run by pastor Miles Evans (Morgan Freeman). Troubled kids often come by here, though they usually leave in the middle of Miles's sermons once they lose interest. Still, they keep coming back, and Miles thinks Manuel can talk to them about his own experiences and hopefully set them on a more constructive path. One such troubled person is Sofia Mellinger (Kirsten Dunst), whose mother was once a popular singer but now wallows in alcoholism. Sofia herself leads a self-destructive lifestyle. Alcohol has entered her life too, and she often passes out and can't remember a thing the next day.

The movie follows Manuel through his journey for redemption, a difficult task since he doesn't believe in God and therefore the five-step method for redemption is inapplicable. Still, twenty-three years in the slammer have made him realize how precious life is, and despite his lack of faith, he might be able to help people like Sofia turn their lives around. Adele's son Abner (Geoffrey Wigdor) is on a mean streak due to an attempt on his life, and he might wind up with the same fate as her brother. Thus, Manuel feels compelled to save him in order to make up what he did years earlier.

Good deeds can't erase the past. Manuel eventually has to admit his sins. Hiding behind noble intentions only keeps the truth confined within him, and as the film progresses, we can see the unease in his everyday actions. He's depressed all the time, rarely smiles and speaks in somber tones. He wants to get the truth out, but he's too afraid of what Adele's reaction might be. Billy Bob Thornton plays only one side of this character, yet it is a complete performance. Director Ed Solomon instructs Thornton to display deep regret and emotional suffering for his crime in nearly every scene. He doesn't have a moment of peace. That day might come for him eventually, but in the short time after being released from prison, he doesn't and shouldn't walk away forever changed by his experiences with these three people. A formulaic script would probably end that way, with everyone happy, but not here. Instead, Manuel finds a path to redemption, but it’s a journey that could take years to complete.

Levity is the kind of movie that you expect to go into automatic pilot and start tugging away unfairly at the emotional strings. That never happens. Ed Solomon has his finger on the pulse of every scene, and he knows exactly what he needs to do to inspire a certain feeling from the audience. The viewer is left somewhere between hating Manuel and empathizing with him. He committed a crime and wants redemption, but Thornton's distanced performance keeps us from landing on any definitive footing with him. We observe the pain in his eyes, but we're not quite ready to let him off the hook and hope Adele can forgive him yet.

This is a quietly brilliant piece of work. It doesn't shout its greatness. Much like another amazing Kirsten Dunst film, The Virgin Suicides, Levity slowly works its magic, unraveling layers of emotional complexity within its characters. It is a great achievement, and certainly one of the year's best movies.

© 2003 Silver Screen Reviews