“Crazy Eyes” was spawned by the same boozy mentality (and, sometimes, sentimentality) that has inspired the work of everyone from Dylan Thomas to Charles Bukowski.
If Adam Sherman’s film, now in limited release, occasionally wobbles under the delusion that alcoholics are actually visionaries and their bad behavior comprises the antics of a demented genius, well, it doesn’t do so very often.
Instead, Sherman’s tale of Adam, an increasingly self-destructive young electronics gazillionaire (by all appearances) played by Lukas Haas, has a certain belligerent charm. That charm may prove elusive to some viewers, but stick with it.
Adam’s not a bad guy, just a lazy one. He obviously got too much, too soon. He doesn’t have to work for a living and doesn’t want to have to work for it anymore – woman-wise – if he doesn’t have to. He’s got an ex-wife and a son he sees when he remembers it’s his day for shared custody.
He spends most of his time hanging out at the dive bar where his pal Dan the bartender (Jake Busey) watches him pick up girls and helps him beat up their boyfriends when they object to Dan’s poaching.
Then he meets Rebecca (Madeline Zima), who he dubs Crazy Eyes – and he can’t have her.
This review continues on my website.