Sympathy for Delicious is a 2010 drama film, and the directorial debut of Mark Ruffalo. Filming took place in Los Angeles. It is the story of a newly paralyzed DJ (Thornton) gets more than he bargained for when he seeks out the world of faith healing.
While, as director, Ruffalo is a little too fond of hand-held shots, he keeps all the performances simmering and moves the story ahead in simple, straightforward steps.
The movie presents its premise in a somewhat intriguingly unprepossessing way, but abandons any deeper exploration of its crisis of faith or, indeed, just human existence -- all to hopelessly middling effect.
Mark Ruffalo is one of the best actors of his generation, and I'd like to be able to say that, with his directorial debut, Sympathy for Delicious, he's one of its best filmmakers, too. Alas, this semiexpressionist fantasia is a botch.
Once we get to the trial that kind of dominates the later part of the movie, I think it comes back and it refocuses on this dynamic between Thornton and Ruffalo who are incedently really good together.
