Hawke shines in thin ‘Ten Thousand Saints’

  • By Robert Horton Herald Movie Critic
  • Wednesday, August 26, 2015 4:03pm
  • LifeGo-See-Do

“This would make a great movie,” all of us have sighed while mind-directing a film from the novel we’re reading. But most of the time it wouldn’t really make a great movie, because a movie is a different animal entirely.

“Ten Thousand Saints” conveys a passionate desire to capture a 2011 novel by Eleanor Henderson, but it looks like a quickly sketched version of something much, much larger.

You want big canvas, you’ve got big canvas: We follow teenager Jude (Asa Butterfield, the kid from “Hugo”) from his turbulent life in small-town Vermont to the grungy streets of the East Village in the late 1980s. His drug-dealing adoptive father Les (Ethan Hawke) returns to the boy’s life to insure he has a place to crash in the city.

The movie has hardcore music, a tragic death, and that laziest of plot devices, the unexpected pregnancy that changes everything.

There’s a lot to pack in, and without the pacing of a novel, the hurly-burly of the story piles up in huge heaps. It’s all utterly sincere, which is part of the problem; you’d expect a little more edge from writer-directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, who made their name with the caustic “American Splendor.”

Just as the movie begins to create some sense of atmosphere and character — the chilly Vermont town where Jude and best buddy Teddy (the excellent Avan Jogia) hang out and huff turpentine — the film is off on another tangent. There’s Teddy’s musician brother (a likably earnest performance by Emile Hirsch), and Les’s classy girlfriend (Emily Mortimer), and her cheeky daughter (Hailee Steinfeld, of “True Grit”).

Everybody rushes through the paces of the increasingly convoluted plot, and that’s leaving out characters who are curiously under-seen. Jude’s got a sister Prudence (the parents were big Beatles fans, apparently) who must have an interesting story of her own, but we glimpse her mostly in passing.

When the film tries to draw significance from the gentrification of the East Village, it clearly reaches too far.

There is one through-line worth noting, however, and that is the nimble performance by Ethan Hawke. Maybe the casting is too easy; Hawke has played this kind of good-hearted screw-up before.

But he really has mastered the art of portraying well-meaning but hopelessly addled masculinity, and he makes Les a humorous and ultimately very human figure. Only Hawke could make Les’s concern over the quality of his son’s marijuana supply seem like a caring, fatherly gesture.

“Ten Thousand Saints” (2 stars)

A very sincere attempt to boil down Eleanor Henderson’s novel into film form, but the movie feels like a quickly-sketched version of something much, much bigger. Asa Butterfield plays a small-town teen with bad habits; a move to New York to join his drug-dealer father (an excellent Ethan Hawke) is unlikely salvation.

Rating: R, for language, subject matter

Showing: Sundance Cinemas Seattle

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Life

Brandon Hailey of Cytrus, center, plays the saxophone during a headlining show at Madam Lou’s on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lynnwood-based funk octet Cytrus has the juice

Resilience and brotherhood take center stage with ‘friends-first’ band.

FILE - In this April 11, 2014 file photo, Neko Case performs at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Fire investigators are looking for the cause of a fire on Monday, Sept. 18, 2017, that heavily damaged Case’s 225-year-old Vermont home. There were no injuries, though a barn was destroyed. It took firefighters two hours to extinguish the blaze. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP, File)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Singer-songwriter Neko Case, an indie music icon from Tacoma, performs Sunday in Edmonds.

Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli
Tangier’s market boasts piles of fruits, veggies, and olives, countless varieties of bread, and nonperishables, like clothing and electronics.
Rick Steves on the cultural kaleidoscope of Tangier in Morocco

Walking through the city, I think to myself, “How could anyone be in southern Spain — so close — and not hop over to experience this wonderland?”

chris elliott.
Vrbo promised to cover her rental bill in Hawaii, so why won’t it?

When Cheryl Mander’s Vrbo rental in Hawaii is uninhabitable, the rental platform agrees to cover her new accommodations. But then it backs out. What happened?

The Moonlight Swing Orchestra will play classic sounds of the Big Band Era on April 21 in Everett. (submitted photo)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Relive the Big Band Era at the Port Gardner Music Society’s final concert of the season in Everett.

2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD (Honda)
2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD

Honda cedes big boy pickup trucks to the likes of Ford, Dodge… Continue reading

Would you want to give something as elaborate as this a name as mundane as “bread box”? A French Provincial piece practically demands the French name panetiere.
A panetiere isn’t your modern bread box. It’s a treasure of French culture

This elaborately carved French antique may be old, but it’s still capable of keeping its leavened contents perfectly fresh.

(Judy Newton / Great Plant Picks)
Great Plant Pick: Mouse plant

What: Arisarum proboscideum, also known as mouse plant, is an herbaceous woodland… Continue reading

Bright green Japanese maple leaves are illuminated by spring sunlight. (Getty Images)
Confessions of a ‘plantophile’: I’m a bit of a junky for Japanese maples

In fact, my addiction to these glorious, all-season specimens seems to be contagious. Fortunately, there’s no known cure.

2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited (Hyundai)
2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited

The 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited is a sporty, all-electric, all-wheel drive sedan that will quickly win your heart.

The 2024 Dodge Hornet R/T hybrid’s face has the twin red lines signifying the brand’s focus on performance. (Dodge)
2024 Hornet R/T is first electrified performance vehicle from Dodge

The all-new compact SUV travels 32 miles on pure electric power, and up to 360 miles in hybrid mode.

Don’t blow a bundle on glass supposedly made by the Henry William Stiegel

Why? Faked signatures, reused molds and imitated styles can make it unclear who actually made any given piece of glass.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.