Reading the various user comments by viewers makes me wonder if there is more than one movie called `Johns' with the same cast. I can't help but think that the negative reviewers never really watched the movie, or did so without any experiential background that would help them tune in to the movie's pathos. While I never was a hustler myself, I've known many and seen something of this world in Toronto. The point is that everyone on the street is looking for something in the wrong place and hence, not suprisingly, they never find it. Hustlers are looking for the sense of personal worth (reflected through others), for respect, for love, for pride of accomplishment and, most of all, for all these things to happen in a real community of folk, some of whom accept, love or reject their presentations. This movie brilliantly and realistically captures this pathos of impossible efforts to achieve normalcy. It is no wonder that Donner, brilliantly played by Lukas Haas, considers himself an `entertainer'. He knows that what others see in him in not a human being to relate to but an object of amusement. Oddly, and realistically, enough he does not realize that his efforts to attach to another in this context are equally futile. His desired object of attachement is unreceptive in this street world. His `love buddy' only wants to act out his fantasy of normalcy by spending Christmas (the quintessential time of naive, childhood joy) in a fancy hotel room. There are many things to admire in this movie but one cannot brand it `phony'. Bringing a portrayal of this kind of futile world populated by largely unfulfilled people requires a deft directorial hand, an understated script and some sensitive acting. We get all these things in `Johns'.
Review of Johns
