An expertly crafted tale of two parallel lives, Leo takes characters from James Joyce's Ulysses and places them in the American South. An intriguing tale of human tragedy and how it reverberates through future generations.
Just released after serving a 15-year sentence for murder, Stephen (Fiennes) begins working in a local diner in Mississippi under the watchful eye of manager Vic (Shepard), and the more scathing glare of redneck Horace (Hopper). Reserved and distant, Stephen rarely gives away clues to his feelings or even his past, except through a series of unpublished books that he is writing.
Pregnant housewife Mary (Shue), meanwhile, has tragically lost both her husband and daughter in a car crash and gives birth prematurely through shock. Wracked with grief and guilt, she names the child after Leopold Bloom (the original title of the film) from Joyce's Ulysses - a reminder of the academic career she abandoned to be a mother - and raises him to correct all her mistakes.
British director Medhi Norowzian successfully builds the basis of this dual narrative, moving smoothly and coherently between characters, slowly dropping in clues as to how these tales are linked. Zubin Mistry's cinematography, meanwhile, is reminiscent of Conrad Hall's work on American Beauty. As in Mendes' hit, Leo involves two stylised environments linked to the two main characters. The cinematography juxtaposes them, the film moving between warm and cold tones as it moves between the plot strands - placing Mary in golden-hued suburbia and Stephen in a rainy and washed-out colour scheme.
While Norowzian has assembled a fabulous cast, it's Elisabeth Shue's performance as the frustrated and tormented Mary that really stands out. From bored wife suffering the inane chatter of other housewives, to embittered mother, she gives a performance of startling scope and emotional resonance.
Fiennes is suitably enigmatic as Stephen, with enough screen presence to pull off the sparseness of his dialogue (it's a definite improvement on his involvement with duff projects like Killing Me Softly and Dust). But the elements of Forrest Gump in his physical appearance - cropped hair, ill-fitting trousers, big trainers - are just a little too distracting at times.
Verdict
Norowzian has crafted an intelligent and accomplished debut, which becomes caught up in its own structure towards the end, but is ultimately a satisfying experience.
Channel 4 Film
Boxoffice Online Reviews
By Kevin Courrier
Boxoffice Magazine
In this American south-set drama, Stephen (Joseph Fiennes) has just served a 15-year sentence in prison for murder. He gets a job in a fast-food diner where he washes dishes by day and writes down his thoughts by night. The story he writes overlaps with a tale of Mary (Elizabeth Shue), a pregnant woman whose husband and daughter are killed. She re-marries a brutal lout who leaves both physical and emotional scars. Soon Mary and Stephen's stories start to merge to produce a major revelation.
Leo is filled with a self-conscious artfulness wherein every scene gets explicitly spelled out. Joseph Fiennes gets to overwork his sensitive eyes to the point where he looks like a Disney fawn reborn as Forrest Gump. Elizabeth Shue must think she's in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Dennis Hopper serves up a tiresome sleaze-ball performance. Leo is an overheated pot-boiler that plays like ersatz William Faulkner
