The Caveman's Valentine

REVIEW
In her second directorial outing (after the exceptional Eve's Bayou), Lemmons treads a fine line between bravura and excess but is able to find middle ground thanks to a fascinating, concrete performance by Jackson. With a screenplay by George Dawes Green, who adapted his own novel, The Caveman's Valentine features Jackson as Romulus Ledbetter, a once-promising pianist whose severe schizophrenia has made him a resident of the streets. When he discovers a dead body near his home (a cave in Central Park), he begins an investigation into the death, which may have been murder. A quite unusual detective story, the film is a hallucinatory odyssey in which our Columbo is quite mad and we're not sure as to the validity of his findings or when his next outburst will surface. This only adds to the unique pleasures of this absorbing, novel film. However, it's hard to imagine this working at all without the presence of Jackson. His is a bold, passionate performance that anchors this tricky, even illuminating puzzle.