The story centers on a homeless man, who tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter. George, a homeless, mentally-ill man who has been unable to hold a job for years. He drifts through the city looking for food, alcohol, and shelter. He also tries to make contact with his estranged daughter. Eventually George takes advantage of some of the social services provided by the city of New York, but he lacks the proper paperwork to get the financial assistance he needs. He befriends a fellow homeless man who claims to have been a successful jazz musician.
Richard Gere stars as an elderly man forced out on the streets of New York City. There isn't much more to the story than that, but for the talented writer-director Oren Moverman it's more than enough.
Richard Gere is a quiet knockout in Time Out of Mind, the Oren Moverman film that has for some reason remained as below the radar as its invisible (to the rest of society anyway) central character.
George's plight is both heartbreaking and chilling and his time spent in waiting areas, hostels and subway trains inspires a greater sense of both tenderness and thankfulness.
You'll share George's sense of weariness as he searches for a simple night's sleep, but more importantly you'll believe in the cold world he inhabits, and the complex plight of those around him.
Director Oren Moverman doesn't seem all that interested in the grimy horror of homelessness except insofar as it gives him an opportunity to show Gere in the midst of an identity crisis: who am I, and how do I fit into the world?
