If one were to take the feel of Joel Schumacher's "8MM," combine it with the insanity of Jack Nicholson in "The Pledge" (as well as the film's pace) and throw in Samuel L. Jackson, what they would get would be George Dawes Green's Edgar Award winning novel-turned-movie, "The Caveman's Valentine." The film, whose sole shining moment is Samuel L. Jackson's portrayal of a homeless Sherlock Holmes-type character named Romulus Ledbetter, should be grateful for Jackson's overwhelming, yet never unwanted, presence, which keeps viewers in their seats throughout the film's duration.
"The Caveman's Valentine" focuses on Jackson's character, a former Julliard-trained pianist, who stands on the fine line of genius and madness. While living in a cave in the middle of the forest, Ledbetter finds the body of a frozen homeless twenty-something named Scotty Gates in a tree outside his cave. Although the police-- including his daughter Lulu whose is a police officer on the force-- dismiss Gates' death, Ledbetter is convinced that the young man didn't freeze to death-- he was murdered.
Determined to prove that he's not just another paranoid schizophrenic living on the streets, Ledbetter sets out to find the young man's murderer. But before he can bring the killer to justice, Ledbetter has to battle his own inner demons-- including that of his ex-wife.
While the plot to both Green's novel "The Caveman's Valentine" and the on-screen adaptation is intriguing and well-written, the overall pace of the film is far too slow. The real question though, as viewers will find out, is how director Kasi Lemmons could have possibly sped up the pace of the film without losing the film's entrancing scenery shots and the key points that come into play during the film's climax.
Despite the film running a bit long, the script makes sure to stay on-track-- developing Jackson's character with numerous subplots that, although sometimes seem out of place, all play a key part in understanding Ledbetter's inner demons. Viewers get to see Ledbetter's struggling relationship with his daughter as he tries to be both the father figure she dreams of him being and his true self, as well as his constant battle to please his wife in his dreams the way he never could in the real world. We also get to see the Ledbetter who is out for justice-- reaching levels of inner-control that he felt he could never reach-- as he tries to lock up a criminal that not only took away a friend of a friend, but also Ledbetter's ability to sleep soundly at night.
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