Factotum: noun, 1. A person employed to do a variety of jobs. 2. A book by Charles Bukowski made into a movie starring Matt Dillon about “a man who never had a job he liked or kept a job he had.”
“Factotum” is an edgy, independent film based on the novel of the same name by anti-Beat writer, Charles Bukowski. Matt Dillon stars as Henry Chinaski, Bukowski’s fictional alter ego. The audience follows Chinaski through countless jobs, women, bottles of liquor and pages of writing as he tries to capture each moment of his seemingly aimless life.
When I first came into the movie theater, I was worried. I could not see Dillon playing Chinaski convincingly. In each of Bukowski’s books, Chinaski is noted for his ugly physical features and even uglier personality. However, Dillon pulls off the character with surprising skill. He captures the dichotomy of charm and misanthropy, of charisma and complete disregard, which is inherent in Chinaski. Whether working in a pickle factory or having sex, he approaches everything with the same pondering nonchalance.
The simplicity of the movie and the vignette-style events within it are very reminiscent of Bukowski’s writing. It is a story about life, and there is no attempt at making some bigger event out of it. Each story within the scope of the movie stands alone. The characters are tangible in their brevity. Like those who walk in and out of paths of real life, they are appreciated for the moment they are in before disappearing again. Even Jan, Chinaski’s primary love interest in the film, is largely unremarkable, an entity that comes and goes with the fling of their relationship.
If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods. And the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.”
– Henry Chinaski
This can, however, prove to be a negative aspect of the film, especially for viewers not previously familiar with Bukowski’s work. Given that, the film can be seen as slow or aimless. One may even say that they begin to care little for the characters; Chinaski is hardly a protagonist or even a tragic hero. His fatalistic responses to every job he throws away or every woman he leaves shows a complete disregard for responsibility or emotion. We like the character and yet don’t understand why.
However, it is the almost nihilistic emptiness of the character and settings combined with Chinaski’s broken-down romanticism that shapes the moviescape. The elements of the movie – from the cinematography to the minimalist musical score – place the characters both in their own surroundings and in those that show their stark contrast from the norm. What can at one moment be a dingy street can suddenly blind the viewer as the camera comes to a pristine office building; no matter where the audience is taken, Chinaski remains the same.
Perhaps one of the driving forces of the movie is the narration pulled from Bukowski’s writings. “Factotum” borrows not only from the book but also from several other anthologies of poetry by the author. Dillon’s voice is nostalgic of the poet’s dry readings and does justice to one of the modern literature’s most infamous contemporary writers.
By the end of the movie, audiences get a real feel for why “Factotum” proves itself to be a caustic rendering of a life less ordinary.