Death of a Ladies' Man

A recipe for a crackerjack film we have here. A charming Lothario who likes his women and drink in equal, superfluous doses, battles karma after a lifetime of misadventure. Gabriel Byrne stars, as he always does. Leonard Cohen tunes play, and that is swell. End of story. Well, not quite.

After getting a dose of his own philandering medicine, professor Samuel O'Shea bellies up to the bar and is soon joined by a parade of hallucinations. Talking ones. Several surreal monstrosities, and then, his long deceased dad, whom he spends most of the film chatting with. It is a clever ploy, the old man getting advice form his very late old man, who is actually a younger version than his son. Ghosts have it pretty good it seems. Without spoiling all of life's important questions, the apparition exists as more of a sounding board for a man in search of himself.

Life, death, mortality, love, relationships, family, reality, a hockey ballet, Frankenstein's monster, it's all here. Shame that it never gets up to full speed after such a wonderful start. Even the escapades that follow, which include a trek from Montreal to lovely Ireland, a spark of fresh romance, and jealousy gunplay, seem rather bland. For so much happening on paper, it is a shame that the screen version doesn't wield more kapow! adventure, either comically, dramatically, or preferably, both. Instead of a classic dramedy, we get a bit of a, um, coma.

Not bad, but oh, what could have been.

• hipCRANK