Film Review: Burning Man (mild spoilers)

In Burning Man, Matthew Goode plays the other side of the mourning the loss of a lover coin.  Where he was the dead lover of A Single Man seen in flashbacks, here he takes the lead as mourner.  

Frenetically paced, Burning Man starts off with a series of quick edits and time jumps.  Caught in between the chaos is Tom, an attractive chef with no control over his personal life, on the brink of an early mid-life meltdown.  He doesn’t seem to be a man of commitment, a very responsible father and too cocky for his own good (Matthew Goode, that is).  But appearances are deceiving and assumptions expected in this non-linear meditation on the deterioration of a soulful love and coping with its complete loss.

Everything culminates in a beautifully orchestrated car crash scene which becomes the centerpiece for the life of a man gone off the rails.  A straight-forward linear depiction would have been quite clique, even dishonest in depicting the lead character.  With his coy grin and Rupert Everett slickness, Goode is perfectly cast as both what one assumes he is, as well as what he turns out to be.  The melancholy tone never gets too indulgent, held together by Tom’s relationship to his son Oscar (Jack Heanly).  Also in the cast is Rachel Griffiths as one of his lovers.   

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