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Critique of Mr. Jones


             This is a 1993 movie starring Richard Gere and Lena Olin. The supporting cast of Delroy Lindo, Tom Irwin, Anne Bancroft, and Lauren Tom. The director was Mike Figgis and Alan Griesman and Debra Greenfield were the producers. The first time I viewed this movie was in 1997 while recovering from a failed suicide attempt of my own. I watched Richard Gere's portrayal of a manic depressive finding myself jealous of his manic highs. Viewing it recently for this project, I could look at it much more objectively. .
             The movie opens with Gere, the title character Mr. Jones, talking his way into a construction job. He is in a manic phase and while on the roof believes he can fly. Delroy Lindo, who plays another construction worker named Howard, takes an immediate liking to him and saves his life. This brief interlude has the emphasis on brief. The power of Gere's personality on others is shown in his relationship with Howard, but not truly developed in the movie. As ubiquios as the title is Mr. Jones himself. He is carted off to a mental hospital for a seventy two hour hold. In the next scene Mr. Jones is in a mental hospital, drugged into a stupor, but he fights against the drugs, against the whole depressing world of normality. He misses his euphoria. Only then does he have charm, wit, grace, intelligence. And only then is he invulnerable to the grief of the world. What is remarkable about "Mr. Jones" is how clearly it communicates his feelings. We begin to understand why manic-depression is sometimes described as the only mental illness its victims enjoy - on the up days, anyway. This setting is where he meets Lena Olin, the psychiatrist who ultimately will be put in charge of his case. .
             One powerful scene that helps explain manic depression is where Gere is experiencing manic euphoria. He is all-powerful, he is elated, and everything has become clear at last! He walks into a symphony concert as the orchestra is playing Beethoven's "Ode to Joy.


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