Tom Sizemore Tries For Overdue Comeback with ‘Cellmates’

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HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 2.5/5.0
Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – I’ve always rooted for Tom Sizemore. Without question, if real-life addiction hadn’t derailed his career, he would be one of our more interesting actors. Go and rent “Natural Born Killers,” “Heat,” and “Saving Private Ryan” if you think I’m wrong. I think about what Sizemore might be doing if he could work with modern masters again like the Coens, Scorsese, or Tarantino. Instead, he’s trying to revive his career with a lead role in a film that’s essentially going straight to On Demand (and opening in New York and L.A. on June 1st), the unique dramedy “Cellmates.” While there’s some notable efforts here, the final result misses its mark.

Leroy Lowe (Sizemore) is the Grand Dragon of the Klu Klux Klan, a man who learns a lesson or two when he’s thrown in a prison cell with an over-the-top Mexican cellmate named Emilio (Hector Jimenez). Forced to pick potatoes by a bizarrely obsessed warden (played with manic glee by Stacy Keach), Lowe turns a corner (and stops abusing his cellmate) when he falls for a beautiful maid named Madalena (Olga Segura). She passes him a note in Spanish and, well, Lowe needs a translator. Emilio helps love flourish as he translates and writes letters between Lowe and Madalena. “Cellmates” seems to posit that racism can be defeated when you really need somebody or when you see a pretty girl (or when you have a good editor to help you with your love letters).

On paper, “Cellmates” might sound like generic torture and the cliches that you think are probably littered throughout Jesse Baget’s film are easily its biggest flaw. If Baget had been a bit more subtle and completely discarded the two word descriptions from the poster — “Racist Gringo” & “Mexican Immigrant” — after their set-up in favor of character, he could have had something here, but the film too often falls back on its outline instead of presenting something that feels real. Sizemore certainly does his best to elevate the material, but every time the movie threatens to kick into gear, something generic or even sitcom-ish in its degree of cliche derails it.

Cellmates
Cellmates
Photo credit: Viva Pictures

“Cellmates” is a movie I found myself wanting to like. There’s the aforementioned affinity for Mr. Sizemore — I can’t think of anyone else who whom I’d rather see a “Wrestler”-esque comeback role be written — and I’ve always had a soft spot for simple, small-character pieces. There are basically only four people in “Cellmates” — the racist, the Mexican, the warden, and the maid. I liked the uncluttered approach and was startled by how much of the film consists of the interplay between the characters via the written word. It’s almost as if writing out stories, emotions, and thoughts neutralizes race — we’re all the same color on the page.

However, Baget’s lackluster style (that he tries to overcompensate for with some silly camera angles) and the film’s tendency to fall back on cliches makes “Cellmates” a near-miss. I went into “Cellmates” hoping that it could be the comeback piece for Sizemore — the film that the right director sees and then hires him for a key movie. It’s not going to be that. It’s not a disaster either. It’s just a lateral move, a film that everyone involved will likely soon forget on their way to making the next one.

“Cellmates” stars Tom Sizemore, Hector Jimenez, Stacy Keach, and Olga Segura. It was directed by Jesse Baget. It is currently available On Demand and on iTunes and will be released in New York and Los Angeles on June 1, 2012.

HollywoodChicago.com content director Brian Tallerico

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

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