To say that film is influenced by itself is not a new idea. In fact, the art house is beginning to take its storytelling techniques almost wholly from Hollywood, while ignoring the power of independent media. Lesser Prophets is less an art film and more an attempt to sell Hollywood fare to an art-minded audience.
John Turturro plays Leon, a mentally challenged New Yorker who has fallen in love with Sue ( Elizabeth Perkins), a housewife whose husband physically abuses her. So that he can make a better living for himself and Sue, Leon weeds his way into a booking operation where he wants to work merely as a gopher. The bookies, Jerry (George DiCenzo), Charlie (Michael Badalucco) and Ed ( John Spencer), find Leon completely and totally inept and make fun of him when he’s not around. They have their own problems when an attempted sting against their operation fails and they must escape to a high crime area where Iggy ( Scott Glenn), a cop and husband, happens on their trail.
To make matters worse, Mike ( Jimmy Smits), one of Jerry’s hostile clients, informs them that he’s skipping town and isn’t going to pay his debt. When Leon accidentally becomes entangled in this conflict, the entire operations is thrust into a whirl of confusion, including a 30-minute chase through the streets of New York.
A cross between Dumb and Dumber and Pulp Fiction, Lesser Prophets is a dramatic comedy with no sense of suspense or comic timing. Like so many other movies that Pulp Fiction spawned, this film tries to tell three stories at the same time, jumping quickly between them. But none of the stories are interesting and the conclusion is painfully transparent long before it actually unfolds.
All the actors here have delivered better performances elsewhere. Turturro plays the idiot savant as if there were no savant. He seems to have fallen into a dangerous typecast as the dreary underdog. DiCenzo gives the film’s best performance as the head bookie, but still isn’t all that great. Smits, Spencer, Badalucco and Amy Brenneman (as Iggy’s wife) all have terrific careers on television, but for some unknown reason decided to cast aside good taste to take on their lifeless roles here. Not even veteran Scott Glenn can eclipse the horrific stereotypical characters in this tarnished Hollywood film trapped in an independent body.
There are dozens of problems with Lesser Prophets and one of them is a lack of purpose. Director William DeVizia and writer/co-star Paul Diomede tried to develop an intriguing surprise ending in which the three stories come to a crashing conclusion. However, there are no surprises, there is no intrigue and everything turns out more aggravating than entertaining.
