'Mr. Lonely'

Rating:

May 1, 2008

The late Stu Troup, Newsday's former jazz writer, once said of Wynton Marsalis that he'd never be great until someone broke his heart. With this in mind, you have to wonder about the emotional breadth and crazy beauty of "Mister Lonely" and how it now comes from the onetime poster child of abrasive transgression, Harmony Korine.

The writer of "Kids," director of the perversely obscure "Julien Donkey-Boy" and "Gummo," Korine has now, with his brother Avi, written an oddly sweet fantasia about celebrity lookalikes and love. Korine has always been a collector of characters, and in "Mister Lonely" - what is it about oddball filmmakers and Bobby Vinton songs? (see: Lynch, "Blue Velvet") - he has directors Werner Herzog and Leos Carax, Anita Pallenberg, magician David Blaine and Mexican heartthrob Diego Luna as Michael, as in Jackson.

A street performer/impersonator, Michael falls in with Marilyn Monroe (Samantha Morton) and is spirited away to the Scottish Highlands and a commune cast with lookalikes. It's mad - check out the flying nuns - but also touching.

MISTER LONELY (unrated). With Denis Lavant, James Fox. 1:52. At the IFC Center, Manhattan.