Review of God's Lonely Man

'God's Lonely Man' is allegedly "inspired by fact" so when watching this obvious homage to 'Taxi Driver' it raises some interesting questions regarding fact and fiction, what is real and what isn't. Almost any movie compared to Scorsese's masterpiece can't help but come off second best, but Gaspar Noe managed to make a brilliant and disturbing movie inspired by the same source (1998's 'I Stand Alone') so there's really no reason why Von Zerneck Jr couldn't have done the same. Unfortunately 'God's Lonely Man' doesn't entirely convince. Maybe it is Michael Wyle in the lead role, I dunno, but something just doesn't ring true, and his character's eventual freak out seems forced and unreal. Much better I thought was Heather McComb ('Apt Pupil') who gives a strong performance which shows a lot of promise. The best scene by far in the film was the movie screening involving an unusually cast but very effective Paul Dooley ('Sixteen Candles') and the very creepy Tom Towles ('Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer'). That was powerful, shocking and unexpected. If the rest of the movie had been as good as that it would have been another story, but as is, this is an uneven, sometimes dull and frustrating movie, which even so JUST has enough good bits to make it worth watching. Many others think much more highly of this movie than me, but I can't say it impressed me all that much.