A Glimpse into the Mind of Charles Swan III
Where should I begin with this movie? A Glimpse into the Mind of Charles Swan III is directed by Roman Coppola and stars Charles Sheen as the title character. It’s not a particularly easy film for me to describe, since the film seems to move in multiple directions. At its core, the film is about Charles Swan III (Sheen) trying to cope with the fact that his girlfriend Ivana (Katheryn Winnick) broke up with him. Swan’s coping mechanism typically involves the use of a series of fantasy sequences, usually in the guise of flashbacks. The film features a supporting cast played by Jason Schwartzman (unrecognizable in a beard and afro), Patricia Arquette, Aubrey Plaza, and Bill Murray. In some ways, the film plays into Charlie Sheen’s meltdown from a few years ago, in which he was fired from the sitcom Two and a Half Men and started claiming that he had tiger blood. As such, it was a bit difficult to tell where Charlie Sheen ended and Charles Swan III begins. In fact, this confusion is compounded by a fourth wall breaking curtain call at the end of the film, in which the entire cast introduced themselves to the camera and said the character they played. In some ways, I would call that my favourite moment of the film, even though it is not saying much. Even though the film isn’t particularly that long (it’s only 86 minutes), I eventually felt like the plot was meandering a little by the third act and I was starting to get bored with the film. It almost seemed like the film was trying to find a way to finish a story, which up to that point was largely vignette-based. In fact, I could almost say that the film was more akin to a series of Saturday Night Live sketches, with a light narrative to stich them all together. In some ways, I would say that the fantasy sequences were the best parts of the film, but it got to the point where they didn’t fit naturally into the story. I would say that if the premise was fine-tuned a little bit more, A Glimpse into the Mind of Charles Swan III might have been an interesting film. However, as it stands, the film is a bit of a mess. I would say that I thought that the film was neither good nor bad. It was just a somewhat interesting idea, that was victim to not-so-great execution.5 | INDIFFERENT
