Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale

Tom Waits is a very talented songwriter. He is perhaps up there with the top five American songwriters of the past thirty years. He is also a fine actor, those of you having watched movies like 'Down by law' and 'Short Cuts' will not doubt agree. He rarely if ever puts a foot wrong in his main chosen arena of the arts, music.

Apart from a few badly judged moves, the same can be said of his film work. 'Bearskin' is I'm afraid, very much one of those 'badly judged moves'. It is in fact a major' foot wrong'. The blame however doesn't lie with Waits performance, its more than acceptable, but the script is dire, the supporting cast are uninteresting, and the camera work is stiff.

The story is quite unbelievalbe, and no matter how well Waits represents the scripts better intentions, this film goes nowhere. I've long hoped Waits would get the chance to show off his acting in larger more commercial roles, something he hasn't really done yet. Sure, he's appeared in cameo form in some big Hollywood efforts, but his abilities deserve so much more. Much much more than 'Bearskin'.