by Massie Twins

Created on: October 12, 2007   Last Updated: October 13, 2007

Director George Gallo crafts an emotional journey of discovery and heartfelt wisdom filled with characters and performances as colorful as the paintings at the heart of the story. Vibrant, sentimental, and full of life, Local Color reveals the passion and influences behind the creation of an artist, and with poignant revelations and dabs of brilliant humor, art imitates life as much as life becomes art.

In 1974 New York, young John Talia (Trevor Morgan) aspires to be a painter, and against the wishes of his overbearing father (Ray Liotta), travels to Pennsylvania with elderly genius artist Nicholi Seroff (Armin Mueller-Stahl) to learn the master's techniques. However, the cantankerous alcoholic painter's tortured past leaves him with little joy in his heart and the tenuous relationship between the two rises and falters throughout the summer, but through encounters with such diverse characters as the art aficionado Curtis Sunday (Ron Perlman) and the captivating country girl Carla (Samantha Mathis), John learns several valuable lessons about life and art from Nicholi, and the irritable Russian becomes invigorated in his passion as he once was so long ago.

Knockout performances by Armin Mueller-Stahl, Samantha Mathis and Ron Perlman are the true highlights of the film. Stahl embodies the broken down Russian painter Nicholi with uncanny realism and authenticity. Based on a real person, Seroff, whom Director Gallo chose to leave anonymous for legal reasons, actually spoke with overbearingly crude language and a never-ending bottle of vodka in his hand. But those idiosyncrasies translate beautifully to the screen, and his performance is unmatched. Mathis is outstanding as the mysterious and distraught neighbor, Perlman makes a hilarious appearance as an overly flamboyant art aficionado and Ray Liotta plays the homophobic father with such a humorous blend of zany characters, Local Color has a surprisingly refreshing degree of comedy, which breaks up its slow pace and tranquil subject matter.

While Local Color's story and acting are its most redeeming factors, the most peculiar piece of the film is its narration. Opening with the voiceover of an older man explaining his journey through life, the audience immediately assumes the story will be a flashback. Instead, this same character, the older version of Talia, continues to narrate at key points in the film - except that we never get to see who is behind the voice. Several shots focus on young Trevor Morgan's face as the voice continues to speak - we know it's him reminiscing about his experiences, but we are never allowed to make that connection, since we never even seen Morgan as an old man. It's obvious what is going on, and yet the disassociation is prominently distracting.

Gallo brings to life the story of his own youth and the mentor who guided him in his dreams of becoming a painter. His fervent passion for both art and filmmaking (and the casting of several exceptional actors) has culminated in a film both poignantly moving and surprisingly humorous. Showcasing idealism and realism amidst characters taken from his own experiences, the story behind the making of Local Color is as aspiring as the film itself. Working without studio support, the crew still acquired several notable actors and was able to shoot the entire film in only 18 days. Several of the producers, and even Gallo himself, took out mortgages on their homes to help fund the film, and much of the talent agreed to participate simply out of admiration of the script and the shared passion to tell Gallo's remarkable story.

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