Time Out of Mind (2015)

Life is even harder in real life but this movie does bring it to the screen. my first thought when reading the "critical" reviews what that people don't want to see the reality. these are mostly people that walk on by ignoring. Not all people who are homeless are mental ill. some that are fall deeper in. People in general don't like reality movies. I had read an article when it was released that people didn't recognize RG during filming. I have know many homeless people and have slept in my car several times lived in transient motels and worked whenever I could. The sad reality is that too many people in America live like this. the film was real.

Trying to capture the essence and loneliness of being homeless in a bustling city like New York, Time Out of Mind sees one time heartthrob Richard Gere give his best impersonation of being a struggling street bum (supposedly Gere even lived on the streets for this role) in The Messenger and Rampart director Oren Moverman's highly unengaging and frustratingly distant drama that perhaps seemed destined for golden statues but has ended up but nothing as loose change in a throwaway cup in the minds of many moviegoers.The most frustrating element about Moverman's drama, that has a penchant for not much dialogue as Gere's lost soul George wanders around the streets, running into everyone from his estranged daughter Maggie played by Jena Malone and blink and you'll miss them turns from the likes of Steve Buscemi, Jeremy Strong and Michael Kenneth Williams, is that the film does have the potential and commitment from its leading man to be something special but as George continues his journey and we overhear situations and conversations (like many homeless must feel, like flies on the walls to people's lives) taking place around us, we quickly realise we are not engaged in the slightest in George's plight as to where his come from or where he is ever so slowly going.There's nothing wrong with this at arm's length approach if it's done right but the film is crying out for a bigger hook to make our often arduous time with George more intriguing and compelling but Moverman seems to care little with giving his film a heart or satisfactory reasons for his style with the film and Gere's commitment plus brief moments touching scenes that seem cut from a much more rounded and complete film (such as the films touching final 15 minutes) that are so far above the films other 100 plus minutes of slow going it just ads to the overall feeling of a frustrating watching experience.There's some important messages to be portrayed in Time Out of Mind and it's always good to see the now mostly little scene talents of Gere on screen but Overman's film is a big disappointment for a filmmaker that's delivered films like The Messenger and Love and Mercy (as a writer) and while this was never meant to be an easy watch film, Time Out of Mind doesn't justify our hard time spent enduring this rather uninviting tale.1 ½ Omar Little orderly's out of 5

Brain slog happens out there. A well-made film shows and suggests with scenes that slip into the next like a dream, yet with all the gritty truth of doing what you have to do to cross the street without getting knocked over. The shelters I remember were different and still, this film captured them.Not wanting to say a lot of words right now. A lot of what's good in the film is what they don't say. There is silence for time to grok and drink in all the other stimuli, and there are toned-down dramatic pauses, as between notes of music.In response to some of the other comments -- You pegged it with some real writing in those comments & this film with references to mind-fog that's related to hunger, and the ambiance of being homeless all day and all night -- these are shown, felt, and quickly inhaled by the audience member who tunes in closely. There is a lot of there, there.

A thoughtful, deeply moving study of homelessness in urban America, specifically, what it's like to be homeless in New York City. "Time Out of Mind" is a maddening film. It fits none of the expected narrative templates that we've come to expect from a mainstream movie, and because of its seemingly pointless, aimless plot - nothing that matters of any consequence happens to anyone, and the main character, George, appears dazed, lost in every sense of the word - I gave up on it...then decided to keep watching. I finished the movie and felt I had seen something profound, profoundly disturbing about the indifference we show those at the margins, the "failures". It's not an easy film to watch. I think that's the point. This is a subject that we all would prefer to turn away from. When homeless, nobody cares. Virginia Woolf said this about Charles Dickens, "We remodel our psychological geography when we read Dickens; we forget that we have ever felt the delights of solitude or observed with wonder the intricate emotions of our friends, or luxuriated in the beauty of nature." This film has re-shaped my "psychological geography" when it comes to NYC. Maybe Woody Allen heard Gershwin while wandering Manhattan. I now hear the distracting noise - the intrusive cellphones, the traffic, all of it - a fierce onslaught that can't be kept at bay. The sound design is relentless and off-putting. And it's true to life. I've been visiting NYC for years, I was there in December. It has never been louder or more annoying. So for George, cursed to live on the street, there is no peace and quiet. Ever. The performances are brilliant, all of them. Gere and Kyra Sedgwick are mesmerizing. And top honors should go to Oren Moverman. What an artist. He wrote another movie this year about the fragility of the mind, about the losing of one's mind, "Love & Mercy". Two fantastic, soul-exploring movies in one year by Oren Moverman. A remarkable achievement.