Six Ways to Sunday (1997)

Produced by Jonathan Demme and based on the novel PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN DROWNING, SIX WAYS TO Sunday (6WtS) follows the adventures of Harold "Harry" Odum (Norman Reedus), a young man pinned so tightly under his mother's thumb he can barely move. On Harry's road of, er, self-discovery, he evolves (for lack of a better term) from mama's boy to hit man for the local Jewish mob. Even more mind-boggling, his smothering mom is played by an eerily effective Deborah Harry! (Deborah Harry Odum? :-) Although she gets to sing in flashbacks (and Blondie's "Sunday Girl" is used to nice effect in a diner scene. In fact, music is used well in this film overall, especially The Feminine Complex's charmingly Petula Clarkesque "Love Love Love"), for the most part Harry is startlingly different from her Blondie front-woman persona, both physically and personality-wise. Directed by Adam Bernstein, who's gone on to excellent work on RESCUE ME and other edgy TV series, 6WtS boasts a cast as talented as it is eclectic. Norman Reedus manages to be boyish and intense at the same time, as well as looking like the positive result of an eccentric geneticist's attempt to create a hybrid of Ewan McGregor, Leonardo DiCaprio, and a young Gary Sinise. There are also memorable turns by Isaac Hayes as a cop (listen for his rendition of "What A Friend We Have in Mother" during the opening scenes), Jerry Adler (best known in our household as Woody Allen and Diane Keaton's mysterious neighbor Mr. House in MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY) as the Jewish mob's equivalent of the capo di tutti capi, and Elina Löwensohn (NADJA, SCHINDLER'S LIST) as the girl Harry loves, reminding me of a sort of wistful, downtrodden Audrey Hepburn. For my money, the most entertaining scenes belong to Adrien Brody, and not just because I'm a fan of his. Brody channels his inner Ali G as Harry's childhood friend Arnie Finklestein, an inept gangsta wannabe who tries to look and act like a homeboy with hilarious results -- but nobody's laughing when he chickens out and flees the scene during one of Harry's hits... 6WtS isn't for all tastes, but if you like your crime comedies weird, dark and twisted, it's at least worth a rental.

Debbie Harry is a great actress as well as a singer/songwriter. She is great as the child obsessed Mother of Harold. Harrold is now working for the Mafia to support his bizarre mother, Kate.Thouroughly Enjoyed this film, one of Harry's better better ones.

This masterful creation is bound to have any viewer thinking about it for some time after the credits roll. Thinking especially about the complex character of Harry Odum played by Norman Reedus - that's complex in more than one sense of the word. Adam Bernstein does an amazing job of plotting out the character development of Harry Odum throughout the story. His is a character that undergoes much change throughout the film and there is never a point where the viewer can pinpoint to say that Harry Odum has displayed an excessively overt transformation. The transition from a young fledgling who is still bathed and nurtured by his mother to a cold blooded killer for the Mafia happens quite smoothly. Smoother than you would probably think possible until you see this film. Of course, credit for this is also due to the fabulous performance by Norman Reedus. As well, Deborah Harry gave a pleasant performance as his incestuous mother.As you may have guessed, any film dealing with the Mafia, incest, and a complex character with a complex is not a light natured film. In fact the mood gets quite dark at times and Adam Bernstein does a lovely job of keeping this dim air present throughout. This includes everything from the depressing industrial set town that the story takes place in, to the gloomy rooms that the scenes are shot in, to the dark lighting in many of the scenes, to the fitting music, all the way to the disparaging words and attitudes of the characters. All of which will contribute to leaving an indelible impression on the viewer.

"Six Ways to Sunday" begins with the Isaac Hayes rendition of 'What A Friend We Have in Mother' and shows a piece of electrical wire running from the mother's bedroom to that of her son's. This is a disturbing film by Jonathan Demme, taken from a novel called 'Portrait of a Young Man Drowning', but it is also fun to watch because the film is understated enough that you are guessing all along which way it might be going. Harry Odom is a young man who could be a cross between the Malcolm McDowell character in "A Clockwork Orange" and Norman Bates. He has an affliction, he isn't sure about his own sexuality because his dominating mother, Kate, insures that he be devoted solely to her, to the point of bathing him herself and controlling the light switch in his room while constantly reminding him of the deadbeat father that left them. There is sexual tension between mother and son, a latency that will eventually show itself. Danny flips hamburgers as a dead end job in a dead end town, Youngstown, Ohio. He appears to be a loner but he has a special friend, Madden, an imagined alter ego who lusts whereas Harry can't. He also cannot control himself when he gets violent but a local mobster, Mr. Louis Varga, sees him as a budding hitman that he can groom and control like his current henchman, Abie Pinkwise. Danny has to endure a series of crisis and you wonder if this is all staged by Mr. Varga to see what is Danny's mental fortitude, especially since the first encounter involves Bill, the double-agent, who tests Harry's loyalty to the mob. Could Iris be a put-on, is the Uncle Max character real, and will Harry really go through with rubbing Abie out? By film's end, Harry has turned into a cold blooded murderer but we also see a twisted redemption - an anti-hero who is able to walk away with his girl and with his affliction. The cast is not particularly outstanding, Deborah Harry as Kate and Norman Reedus as Harry, but the integrity of the film doesn't depend on the acting as much as on the joy of peeling away at the story layer by layer until there is nothing left.