User reviews

Is there a role which eludes Sean Penn? In Italian director Paolo Sorrentino's English-language debut following his 2008 Cannes hit 'Il Divo', the two-time Academy Award winner takes on an unlikely comedic role as an over-the-hill pop star named Cheyenne and pulls it off with aplomb. Indeed, even though the movie never does quite come together as a cohesive whole, Penn's brilliant performance more than anchors the entire film, and you'll find yourself hard-pressed to take your eyes off him.

To say that Penn owns the entire movie is not an overstatement- right from the start, Penn mesmerises with a bizarre get-up consisting of a jet-black fright wig and all-black lipstick and eyeliner even in the comfort of his own sprawling home. As is typical of such characters, Cheyenne suffers from depression, and besides doing the groceries while his fireman of a wife (Frances McDormand) is off at work, spends most of his time in the day hanging out with a spunky teen Mary (Eve Hewson) at a café in a shopping mall.

Purpose is what is lacking in his life- haunted by the suicide of two brothers who said they were inspired by his lyrics, Cheyenne has not been able to return to his music since. For the first half hour, Sorrentino familiarises his audience with the idiosyncrasies of his lead character as well as his marriage with his wife Jane, and thanks to an empathetic performance by Penn, your heart will go out to this lost soul searching for that elusive thing called meaning. It is testament to Penn's flawless performance that you'll still feel the warmth and heart behind his character's eccentricities.

Cheyenne awakens from his stupor when he gets news that his father is dying and promptly makes the travel by cruise- because of his fear of flying- to New York. Unfortunately, he arrives too late, missing the very last opportunity to connect with the father he has not spoken to in years. So when his cousin Richard (Liron Levo) informs him that his dad was obsessed with tracking down a Nazi war criminal at Auschwitz named Aloise Lange (Heinz Lieven), Cheyenne takes it upon himself to complete his father's mission.

And so begins a road trip across the United States, each pit-stop in Michigan, New Mexico and finally Utah offering memorable encounters with locals that in their own way serve to give him closure and reconciliation. Mirroring Cheyenne's own inner transformation, Sorrentino adopts a measured pace as Cheyenne meets a history teacher (Joyce Van Patten), a war widow (Kerry Condon), his dad's fellow Nazi hunter Mordecai Midler (Judd Hirsch) and finally of course Lange himself. Less patient viewers will probably be frustrated, but those willing to accept the laid-back tone of the film will find Cheyenne's journey a rather therapeutic one- especially in its closing lesson on the importance of learning to let go of the past.

Sorrentino, who co-wrote the script with Umberto Contrarello, also lightens the mood of the film with some well-placed deadpan humour, delivered with panache by Penn. A scene where Cheyenne meets a gaggle of women in the lift discussing which brand of lipstick is best and finally gives them due advice just to shut them up is sharply hilarious, while his well-meaning attempt at match-making Mary with an earnest shopping mall staff proves sweet and amusing. But through the varying types of humour, it is Penn's unpretentious acting that makes them work- with a recurring gesture of Penn casually blowing a wisp of hair falling across his face perhaps the most consistently delightful narrative device. Among his co-stars, McDormand shines in her role as Cheyenne's wife, and a sequence where she is practising tai-chi in her lawn while distracted by her husband in the upper window one of the best moments in the film.

For rock fans, the participation of David Bryne is no doubt a highlight in itself, and Sorrentino pleases his fans with an extended concert scene that has the rock star performing the title song of the film while a woman in a room that reflects a period setting floats above the crowd. Nonetheless, for us cinephiles, the delight is in watching Sean Penn take on an unlikely comedic role in spite of his dramatic credentials. If it isn't yet apparent, we'll say it again- Penn's flawless performance is good enough reason to visit this place, and it's one that is warm, touching and unexpectedly affecting.

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This film has beautiful performances and words - it's the moments that end up holding the most merit. Otherwise, a lot of it is lost on a practical level. For example, I didn't understand most of the characters' relationships on a completely literal level. How were Mary and her mother related to Cheyenne? What did Mary say in the first scene at the mall coffee shop? Between the unintelligible way they spoke and the (refreshing) non-expositional quality of the movie, you just have to take it as it comes. Much of the dialogue is poetic and nuanced, the performances from each actor are strong, and the photography is fun. I found it to be poetic and wonderful despite its befuddling aspects.

It took quite a while until this movie comes to the US, I do not know why it took so long, yet I hope it gets the response it deserves (I saw it in Europe months ago already).

Sean Penn is just amazing and the whole movie is something you don't see much in US cinemas. Its so different that there is almost no comparison. Of course it will be a big hit within the Gothic scene, but also the regular movie fan should give it a try. Its very slow paced road trip, but Penn carries that overwhelmingly with his outstanding performance of the character, who reminds of course of Robert Smith, but in a superb way. The story is very simple and so I leave that totally out, since it would spoil it right away.

My favorite scene is when he visits the show from David Bryne playing "This must be the place", keep it in mind and enjoy the show! Its certainly an experience for real movie fans!

(That it won't be a huge box office hit, most likely, should not hold anybody back who wants to see a good movie!)

If you come up with a complicated and quirky plot, there is almost no way to avoid people accusing you of trying too hard to be "indie." The core of this plot is a good one, although it's hampered by throwing too many ingredients in the soup. Hence, like other reviewers, I too will accuse the makers of trying a bit too hard. But I appreciate the originality of the plot.

I've noticed that most small films tend to focus on depressed or outsider type people. I'm guessing that's because the people who make them are that way. But it would be nice once in a while to see a small film about essentially happy people growing in some way, or overcoming an obstacle.

If you took a bunch of drugs, you haven't worked in 20 years, you live in a dreary place, and you're going through a midlife crisis, you would move and talk slowly and perhaps softly. Also, if you were a cross dresser, you might speak with an effeminate voice. So i get all that. But the mumbling aspect was a bit much. Unless you want to interpret that a guy who made millions from his voice, is now crippled in the voice. The mumbling was my biggest complaint. Even if he had cranked it up a tiny notch, I would have been satisfied.

I think the sex scene was put in there specifically to justify why a woman would stay with such a loser for so long. Make no mistake about it. This guy is a loser. His awareness of that fact is the main source of his depression.

What I liked about the plot was the idea of needing a purpose or mission to get yourself out of a funk or grow up. But having his dad be American and orthodox Jewish is a shock to the system. There were no previous references to his even being American, and none about growing up as an orthodox Jew. Wouldn't you see some vestiges of Jewishness at his house, or in his mannerisms or conversation?

As other reviewers mentioned, it was clear that he had no real interest in the Holocaust or his dad's history. He just felt remorse at not giving his father a chance. Couple that with needing a purpose and you have his mission.

Most of the people he interacted with in small town America were not random. They were family members of the Nazi he was hunting or knew something about him. But we did get a little slice of American life in the process. Although here's a tip to non-American indie film enthusiasts. Not all Americans are quirky. Many just work, live, love, pray, volunteer, serve, and laugh.

This guy was always about depression and regrets, but never about rage. So it's no surprise that he had no rage for the Nazi. Another person might have, because although the humiliation he caused his father was relatively mild, he was still involved with slaughter.

I'm OK with the subplots about the woman with a missing son and the Gothic teen. It makes sense. The girl was the type he would have hung out with in his own teens and he was basically stuck at that stage of life. Meanwhile the woman's son apparently skipped town the way our main character had years ago.

I love the Talking Heads song. So I certainly appreciate the idea of building a story around it. "Home, this must be the place." You could say that our protagonist was searching for a home in this world his whole life.

This Must Be the Place (2011)

Sean Penn tries very hard in this film, taking on a role of the worn out and disturbed rock star (Cheyenne) living in isolation. His character is weirdly ambiguous—and just plain weird—somewhere between a cross-dresser, a transvestite, and a myopic hedonist. He is something like "the idiot" of literature who seems completely out of touch but also has a wisdom and aloof perspective others do not.

It sometimes works. The movie itself is filled with ambiguity, and not in an enchanting way. Since it does not charm by its aura and filmic intention (it has little of either), it should give us a better sense of what exactly is going on. Oh, you'll get the drift, and you'll pick up on the Cheyenne's regret and melancholy. And you might understand he hits the road in a bumbling search for some evil-doer geriatric Nazi (I'm serious) that no other person is better qualified to pursue.

Well, any movie that pushes into its own sphere with some enthusiasm is worth watching, to me. I'm glad I did. But I can use my experience to warn a viewer that it's a personal calling here. Penn alone is reason to either hate or like the film, his overacting reminding me mostly that there are people who are really like this character who would have done much better. Instead we feel him acting all the time. It should be said that some of the other actors are forced to push their performances, too.

One curious aspect to the film I loved was all the versions of the one song in the film, "Home" or "This Must Be the Place" by the Talking Heads (and performed by all kinds of people including David Byrne himself in a small, very tacked-on cameo). Some of the versions are so different you might not even catch that it's the same song again. Listen.

So what's the point of all this angst and campy sadness? I think it's about the rediscovery of this Cheyenne's self. His real self, a person with normal qualities. He succeeds by breaking out of his self-imposed hermetic world and in a way it's a warm and almost terrific experience. For him and for the viewer. But for all its intentions it felt forced to me. There wasn't enough supporting material, not enough ambiance, and not enough character development (oddly enough, since it's all about Cheyenne's character). There is so much time spent on superficial aspects we never really get into the depths that might be here. Maybe.

I want to think of this as a 10 star dream with a 4 star soul. That makes 7, I guess. But it feels less satisfying than that for me, and I'm thinking you'll know by now whether you might give this a tentative whirl.

I'm a DVD man.Films are my most important relaxation methodology. For me, the whole purpose of a film is to transport me into another reality, even a 'factually historic' film does this, for that reality was never subjectively mine. Occasionally a film comes along that is so incredible in it's ability to 'transform my reality' that it becomes embedded not only in my memory but leaves laser-like traces sparkling in my consciousness.

This was such a film for me.

No spoilers here, but some aspects of the photography are amazing,simply beyond surrealistic,more glowingly minimalistic in their utter magnificence. How the hell can you make a supermarket shopping trip into an adventure journey through a time-warped window of photographic beauty? Watch out for the car at the gas station scene. It's a visually structured scene that hit my eyes with astonishment.

The acting is superb.Yet, that word seems so inadequate to describe Sean Penn's utterly mind-blowing performance. I had to keep reminding myself that this was Sean Penn and these continued reminders simply made his performance all the more brilliant.

In the manner of an 'old Master',Paolo Sorrentino places layer after layer of subtle strokes to compose a mesmerizing work. He takes his time about it, as though each stroke of his brush must be precisely executed so that the whole may be that 'other reality' I seek in my film watching.

If you will watch this then you must prepare yourself to surrender totally into ' it's reality'- I found it well worth the capitulation.

I thought that Sean Penn played a superb role in this film; the direction that he received was virtual perfection. I thought the editing as well as the establishment of the camera shots was cinematic excellence. However, having said these positive comments about the film, I still left the theater this afternoon disappointed; disappointed because I did not enjoy the film as I normally do.

I think anybody that makes the effort to see this film must be prepared to see Penn play a pretty strange character but play him about as well as could be played. The supporting roles were all very classy with no weak spots anywhere as far as I could tell. My problem was with the script I guess.

I can't lie, i was expecting a "normal" movie by an Italian director, like Muccino's movies- not great, a little weak here and there and kinda boring-! "This Must Be the Place" instead is a great flick, probably the best movie of 2011, great story, amazing acting, a photography that leave you speechless. It's a must see. Plus it make you smile, it's ironic, Sean Penn has fun with his character, he plays with it, his moves and his voice are always perfect, it good to see an actor in such a great shape. This is one of those pictures that remind you why going to the movie is such an amazing thing to do!

Ciao ciao, Alberto

It's very difficult to get a handle on Sean Penn's aging rocker character. One thinks he has fried his brain. He speaks and acts slower than anyone I have ever seen. He looks the same as he did in the 80s, including makeup, but has lost interest in his music.

Cheyenne (Penn) is married to Jane (Frances McDormand). They have been together for 35 years. Not only is this the opposite of what one would expect of a rock star, but she works as a firefighter. No, they are not broke, it's just what she does.

The two of them are surrounded by some interesting characters in a film that moves at a snail's pace.

You never really know where it is going, but at the end you realize that it was good for Cheyenne to get out of his world and grow up.

Premises are interesting. I would always watch a movie about/focused on the life of a retired/depressed rock star, factual or fictional... And indeed, Penn delivers a somewhat convincing performance as (Robert Smith-inspired?) Cheyenne (poor choice of pseudonym, if you ask me, but hey, there's also a band called "The Pieces of Sh*t", so)...

The problem is: that annoying voice!, and... Well, everything else. This is a pretty boring film, overall. Frances wasn't convincing, nor was anybody else besides Sean.

Sure, there are funny parts, but they're not enough to prevent the yawns, or fight the desire of doing something else during most part of it.

My 5/10 is strictly because of Penn's genius, indeed one hell of an actor, but he deserved a better script and a better... Well, everything.

Honorable mention to the David Byrne/Will Oldham teaming up to perform a satisfying soundtrack, especially the main track "Lay & Love", excellent in my opinion.

I really adore this film. I think I saw it 5 times in various cinemas. It is a film about many things, like growing up, leaving the past behind, how parents can scar their children for life and of course about the Holocaust. It is also a sort of a road movie. The topic of the Holocaust is presented in a smart, sophisticated and almost delicate way like I have never seen before. Despite that or maybe because if the delicate approach it is no less effective in recalling the Holocaust than let's say "The Schindler's list". But very different, of course. The film is very well directed and I like the soundtrack as well. The film has a strange, hypnotic flow and rhythm to it, despite being slow in some parts. It can be funny too. The acting is excellent, especially by Penn but not only. Highly recommended.

Sean Penn plays superb a Robert Smith-like ex-rockstar who suffers of depression (or is it just boredom!?) after the life on stage is just a weak echo in his mind but the use of make-up and lipstick etc. is still the daily ritual. The movie itself is filled with many fine little stories, weird dialogues and pictures of almost surreal quality.

A good watch - if you like such kind of movies on the more storytelling and weird side of the movie cosmos.

Sean Penn plays John Smith, a.k.a. Cheyenne, a Robert Smith-like former pop star with wild black hair, black mascara around his piercing blue eyes and a trepidatious mouth finely-etched in red lipstick. He has been out of the music business (and, indeed, absent from the mainstream of life) for 20 years, secluded in his Dublin mansion after two kids killed themselves while listening to his forlorn songs. Upon learning that his once-estranged, recently-deceased father was a victim of the Nazi atrocities of World War II, he consults with a Nazi hunter and embarks on a mission to kill the SS officer still living in the United States. Director Paolo Sorrentino, who also co-authored the screenplay with Umberto Contarello, is tantalized by offbeat humor so low-keyed it sometimes passes for pathos; he's also enamored of faces, and he allows Penn lots of screen-time (too much time, one may argue) for the actor to work his soulful stare into the camera. Penn doesn't quite work his way into the viewer's heart, however, and this is the fault of the filmmaker, who unfolds his highly unlikely story very slowly and with a great deal of artistic flourish (i.e., pretension). Cinematographer Luca Bigazzi's camera swoops and glides around barren landscapes and empty rooms with amusingly smooth panache, but the audience isn't picking up on anything substantial except for the technique. Penn goes out on a limb with his performance--talking in a prissy-timid yet direct way that recalls Andy Warhol's pattern of speech--but, in the end, the role is a costume, and many other actors could have played John Smith--and perhaps improved upon it. Sorrentino wants to make us laugh and squirm and take pause. He wants to break our hearts over the course of the lead character's picaresque journey, but there's no truth in it. *1/2 from ****

A completely not Hollywood production that is surely the antithesis to all that is Box-Office certainty. An artsy European Film flavored with a piercing performance from Sean Penn with a beautiful mounting of images and fluid framing that is mesmerizing.

The witticisms of the main character, a retired, suffering, inflicted and conflicted Rock Star, are dark humor delights. Just when you think that this comatose creature is completely out of it he responds with insight and cleverness that acknowledges that his body may be failing but his mind is alert as well as aching.

This is off beat to say the least and will be too slow for the cranked-up Movie goers and too cerebral for those wanting bodily excretions and dumbo dialog for their yuks. They won't find anything but dry wit and laid-back contemplative commentary here. This is a strong Character study with a stiff step and is driven by the need for patience and empathy.

The coming of middle age, while skipping adulthood and maturing of this almost corpse like Man is not as painful as it seems on reflection and is a necessary metamorphosis from his cocoon. it just took awhile coming for he is out of time both literally and culturally.

Although this is my favorite genre - that's why the generous rating - it lacked the melancholy of an indie.Its understandable the weirdness, unusual social behavior and even abrupt situations but what is not is the fact you can't tie an end to it, no metaphoric connection at all.

Sean Penn is a brilliant actor and if I wasn't aware of ozzy Osbourne maybe he could have pulled it off.But under all the criticism he did make the character real,lost,uncertain but alas unauthentic.It could have been all a different ball game if it wasn't Ozzy that was impersonated.

Plot was good pick for an indie but needed much explanation all the way.It was easy to be carried away seeing the unusual characters but scenario just seem to be aligning itself with the weirdness of the character made it difficult to buy.I liked the fact how story unfold with so many questions raised in the beginning getting answered in the end keeping curiosity alight.

Overall if you like indie picks,you won't regret this one and will enjoy its wits although you will have to turn the volume up to hear some of them.

There is only one reason to see this film really. Sean Penn. And the character he creates with Cheyenne. Cheyenne is odd, unique, quirky, profound, charming, insightful and frequently hilarious. Like a younger, more intelligent, sensitive and haunted Ozzy Ozbourne. He see no need with small talk and convention. His appearance and talking style add wildly to his other worldly-ness.

The first part of the film (set in Dublin) explores his daily uneventful life after retiring from the music business. The characters who interact with Cheyenne are everyday people and they do everyday things together. This is strangely fascinating as they meander along not really doing anything. Then unfortunately the plot decides to inject a ridiculous American road trip type scenario. The reason for this being that Cheyenne wants to avenge his dead father's Nazi persecutor. This seems totally incongruous to the tone of the film thus far. A gentle, humorous character study of a complex individual suddenly becomes this at-odds, boring, contrived road trip/revenge film. Even Cheyenne at times struggles to keep your attention as you care little about these pathetic plot developments. Yet he just about does. Just about.

There is also a strange sub plot involving a mother's missing son called Tony. What this has to do with anything is never really explained. Adding to the sense that the writer's didn't really have a clue what they are trying to achieve.

There is (in my opinion) a rather cruel scene towards the end of the film. I feel the film makers made a mistake regarding this. It seemed like a hypocritical, petty, cruel thing to do to a person. Were they trying to make a political statement? It just felt nasty and unnecessary. And not in keeping with character.

Visually this film is lovely. The camera work is consistently great. The close ups, the backgrounds. All really beautiful.

Go see this film for Penn but don't expect much from the plot.

Took me by total surprise. OK, the main character is an aging rock star confronted with the tragedy his estranged father survived. But, really, does it matter that he/she is a rock star between glamor (the lip stick will take us back to Rockie Horror ...), all sort of pains linked to aging, search for well earned comfort and plain boredom (the film reminds us that we may all be at that point -- all the time?)? This wonderfully minimalist film asks quite directly about memory in our own lives. Buried (voluntarily or circumstantially)? showbiz (who gains what from remembering tragedies? or, as the film finally claims, mere distraction (are we not all bored?)? The clash between the Holocaust in Cheyenne's life and his passive determination to refuse to know puts the spectator on the edge for virtually two hours, which the exceptionally precise and surprising camera work only accentuates. Those close ups that summarize a person in two seconds! Those pans on landscapes that translate a entire state! "This must be the place" will remind us that cinema is before all, photography: well organized strings of moving images. And sound track. References to Mike Jagger and images of David Byrne are so, so clever. The fact that Patrick Modiano (please google him) was in the theater when I saw TMBTP at the Arlequin cinema in Paris made the whole experience even stronger. Sean Penn and Frances McDormant are beyond, beyond fabulous (and seemed to truly enjoy acting in it) Thanks to both! I cannot wait to see it again. And again. And....

Rarely have I seen a movie so consistently inept. How do you even take Sean Penn, France McDormand, a David Byrne soundtrack, Robert Smith styling, and make it all suck? I love all of the above and detested the movie enough to wonder how anybody signed on for it.

Disclosure here that I have no familiarity with the director and have not seen his previous works. So that I do not comprehend what he was trying to accomplish with this stilting disjointed film. But even the premise of the film is of negligible interest to me. This was simply on TV, and so I watched it, thinking how bad could a movie with Sean Penn and Frances McDormand get? Although with the plot synopsis I had forewarning it wasn't my type of film.

This would appear to be the type of weird work that foreshadows that even the most accomplished actors make mistakes, get involved in films they probably shouldn't, and get swayed by something in order to be part of the project.

I'm trying to fathom any portion of this film that is redeeming or that makes it worth watching. Very rarely would I state this, I want my 2hrs back.

This must be the slowest movie I've ever seen, and I was completely fascinated: slowly moving things on screen, a slowly moving camera, a main character who walks and talks slowly, and last but not least, a slowly developing story. In a time when everything has to go faster and faster, this film just takes its time.

Cheyenne as a character could have been created by Tim Burton: a weird, lovable outsider who doesn't seem to belong to this world.

About Sean Penn's mumbling: English is not my first language, but I didn't think it was that bad. For me, it wasn't harder to understand Cheyenne than any of the other characters.

Sorrentino suggests a complex history, probably too much to be treated as raw material in the manner of the comic Tarantino. It 'a problem of linguistic register that plagues the film, which does not form differs little from the content. Missing, as it did of the previous films, the inseparable link between the images and the underlying meaning of the story is the poetry. Sorrentino is a master in the representation of existential emptiness, inability to communicate, the discomfort of contemporary living in a global society and devitalized, which also he made but where is not found, indeed, to be exact, where he feels inadequate. The shots are always essential, therefore, made of geometric architecture and empty, and almost metaphysical hyper-realist, then here is the succession of supermarkets, shopping malls, escalators, a futuristic flying bridge over the heads of men and houses. This explains the predilection sites for aseptic and soulless as the 'Switzerland colorless in "The consequence of love", the repulsive fascist architecture of Latin America in "The Family Friend", the insignificant reality in the province of Ascoli novel "They are all right," the chilling anonymous motels inland U.S. and so on. Even the protagonist of "This Must Be The Place" moves in similar places, so much so that Ireland and the United States does not have a recognizable identity: the sites of action does not belong to any particular place, and the mall , as well as the country overwhelmed by highway interchanges and overpasses, could be either in any suburb in the world. The rock stars of the film is called Cheyenne, but in reality is Robert Smith, the leader of the Cure although Sorrentino uses the character as a figure of the collective imagination and adapts it to his purposes in making the protagonist of an adventure as any hero comics. Certainly, the director may have been attracted by the figure of Smith for the close relationship with some of these films as David Lynch's "Twin Peaks" and "Muholland Drive" which prefigured the dark scene. Cheyenne leads an empty life, on the brink of despair, made darker by guilt, symbolized by the trolley that accompanies any of its activities, was to do the grocery shopping, or more properly to travel. When you meet the inventor of the trolley, you will also find the right clue leads him to seek out the hiding place of his father's Nazi torturer and the film draws to its conclusion. During the confession of the German shows that even this man pulls his weight, his sense of guilt to be expiated. The story then acquires a universal, with biblical references also about the human condition: each pulls its weight, everyone is on the brink of the precipice and we must persevere in the search for salvation, and atone for his guilt. Only then will the catharsis can take place and start the regeneration. It 'obvious that requires a lot of meat to cook sublime skill to be properly represented without running the risk of slipping and falling into banality. Sorrentino does his best, but in the end is a certain feeling of coldness and cleavage. However, only three minutes on the scene in which David Byrne makes imperative the movie.

Here is a movie that offers philosophical perspectives through the eyes of a beaten-up ex-partyman who now sounds like a walking Winnie the Pooh. He has become a simpleton on the inside, but remains unconventional-looking on the outside. It is a good premise to an honest man who does not care anymore what people think about him. His one-liners are really deep and memorable, yet I am unable to find him likable as I remain confused as to how he would choose to remain looking like that. The peripheral characters are all one-dimensional in comparison, and doesn't provide the movie with any more depth. Overall, this is a squandered opportunity that could have made the viewer thinking about the character for days after seeing the movie.