The Caveman's Valentine

Last updated
The Caveman's Valentine
Cavemans valentine.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Kasi Lemmons
Screenplay by George Dawes Green
Based onThe Caveman's Valentine
by George Dawes Green
Produced by Michael Shamberg
Danny DeVito
Scott Frank
Elie Samaha
Stacey Sher
Andrew Stevens
Starring Samuel L. Jackson
Colm Feore
Aunjanue Ellis
Cinematography Amelia Vincent
Edited by Terilyn A. Shropshire
Music by Terence Blanchard
Production
companies
Distributed by Universal Focus
Release date
  • March 2, 2001 (2001-03-02)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$13.5 million [1]
Box office$687,194 [1]

The Caveman's Valentine is a 2001 American mystery-drama film directed by Kasi Lemmons and starring Samuel L. Jackson based on George Dawes Green's 1994 novel of the same name. [2] The film was released by Universal Focus, a subsidiary of Universal Studios, which would later become Focus Features.

Contents

Plot

A former family man and pianist studying at Juilliard music school, Romulus Ledbetter, now suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and lives in a cave in Inwood Park, New York. He believes that a man named Cornelius Gould Stuyvesant is controlling the world with rays from the top of the Chrysler Building, and that his mind is inhabited by moth-like seraphs. On Valentine’s Day, he discovers the frozen body of a young man, Scotty Gates, left in a tree outside his cave. The police, including Romulus's daughter Lulu, dismiss the man's death as an accident. However, a homeless ex-lover of Scotty tells Romulus that he was murdered by the famous photographer David Leppenraub. Determined to discover the truth behind Scotty’s death and prove his worth to his daughter, Romulus manages to get an invitation through a former friend to perform one of his compositions at Leppenraub’s farm. What unfolds thereafter is a twisted tale of mystery, deception, and a man's struggle against his own mind.

Cast

Release

Box office

The Caveman’s Valentine opened in limited release on March 2, 2001, and grossed $112,041 on its opening weekend. After 15 weeks in theaters, the film grossed $687,194. [1]

Critical reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 45% based on 84 reviews, with an average score of 5.17/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Caveman's Valentine has an intriguing premise, but the film falls flat under the weight of its ambition." [3] On Metacritic, which uses an average of critics' reviews, the film has 44 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [4]

Awards

In 2002, Tamara Tunie was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female. [5]

Related Research Articles

<i>Iris</i> (2001 film) 2001 biographical film directed by Richard Eyre

Iris is a 2001 biographical drama film about novelist Iris Murdoch and her relationship with her husband John Bayley. Directed by Richard Eyre from a screenplay he co-wrote with Charles Wood, the film is based on Bayley's 1999 memoir Elegy for Iris. Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent portray Murdoch and Bayley during the later stages of their marriage, while Kate Winslet and Hugh Bonneville appear as the couple in their younger years. The film contrasts the start of their relationship, when Murdoch was an outgoing, dominant individual compared to the timid and scholarly Bayley, and their later life, when Murdoch was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and tended to by a frustrated Bayley in their North Oxford home in Charlbury Road. The beach scenes were filmed at Southwold in Suffolk, one of Murdoch's favourite haunts.

<i>Seabiscuit</i> (film) 2003 American film

Seabiscuit is a 2003 American sports film co-produced, written and directed by Gary Ross and based on the best-selling 1999 non-fiction book Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand. The film is loosely based on the life and racing career of Seabiscuit, an undersized and overlooked Thoroughbred race horse, whose unexpected successes made him a hugely popular media sensation in the United States during the Great Depression. At the 76th Academy Awards, Seabiscuit received seven nominations, including Best Picture, but ultimately lost all seven, including six to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Linklater</span> American film director, producer and screenwriter (born 1960)

Richard Stuart Linklater is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for making films that deal thematically with suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies Slacker (1990) and Dazed and Confused (1993); the Before trilogy of romance films: Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013); the music-themed comedy School of Rock (2003); the adult animated films Waking Life (2001), A Scanner Darkly (2006), and Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood (2022); the coming-of-age drama Boyhood (2014); and the comedy film Everybody Wants Some!! (2016).

<i>Snake Eyes</i> (1998 film) 1998 film by Brian De Palma

Snake Eyes is a 1998 American mystery thriller film directed and produced by Brian De Palma. The film stars Nicolas Cage as a detective investigating a political assassination at a boxing match in Atlantic City, with supporting roles played by Gary Sinise, Carla Gugino, John Heard, Stan Shaw, Kevin Dunn, Joel Fabiani and Luis Guzmán. De Palma also devised the story with David Koepp, who was the sole writer of the screenplay. The musical score was composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tamara Tunie</span> American actress

Tamara Tunie is an American film, stage, and television actress, director, and producer. She is best known for her roles as attorney Jessica Griffin on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns and as medical examiner Melinda Warner in the NBC police drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2000–2021). Tunie also appeared in films such as Rising Sun (1993), The Devil's Advocate (1997), The Caveman's Valentine (2001) receiving Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female nomination, Flight (2012), and Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022).

<i>Encino Man</i> 1992 film by Les Mayfield

Encino Man is a 1992 American comedy film directed by Les Mayfield in his directorial debut. The film stars Sean Astin, Brendan Fraser, Mariette Hartley, Richard Masur, and Pauly Shore with supporting roles done by Megan Ward, Robin Tunney, Michael DeLuise, and Ke Huy Quan. In the film, two teenagers discover and thaw a frozen caveman, who has to adjust to 20th-century society while teaching them life lessons of his own.

<i>True Crime</i> (1999 film) 1999 film by Clint Eastwood

True Crime is a 1999 American mystery thriller film directed by Clint Eastwood, and based on Andrew Klavan's 1995 novel of the same name. Eastwood also stars in the film as a journalist covering the execution of a death row inmate, only to discover that the convict may actually be innocent.

<i>The Savages</i> (film) 2007 film by Tamara Jenkins

The Savages is a 2007 American black comedy-drama film written and directed by Tamara Jenkins. It stars Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Philip Bosco.

<i>Scary Movie</i> (film series) American horror parody film series

Scary Movie is an American comedy horror parody film series that comprises five parody films, mainly focusing on spoofing horror films. The films have a combined gross of almost $900 million at the worldwide box office. The two recurring actresses are Anna Faris and Regina Hall as Cindy Campbell and Brenda Meeks, appearing in all installments except the fifth film.

<i>The Last Legion</i> 2007 film by Doug Lefler

The Last Legion is a 2007 historical action adventure film directed by Doug Lefler and produced by Dino De Laurentiis. It is based on the 2002 novel of the same name by Valerio Massimo Manfredi. It stars Colin Firth, Ben Kingsley, Aishwarya Rai, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Peter Mullan, Kevin McKidd, John Hannah, and Iain Glen. It premiered in Abu Dhabi on 6 April 2007.

<i>The Ten Commandments</i> (2007 film) 2007 animated film

The Ten Commandments is a 2007 animated biblical epic fantasy film directed by John Stronach and Bill Boyce, and written by Ed Naha. The film follows Moses from his childhood, as the adopted grandson of Pharaoh, to his adulthood, as the chosen one of Yahweh and liberator of his people.

<i>Hardbodies</i> 1984 film by Mark Griffiths

Hardbodies is a 1984 American sex comedy film about three middle-aged men who hire a younger man to help them pick up women at the beach. The film was directed by Mark Griffiths, and stars Grant Cramer, Courtney Gains and Gary Wood. It was followed by a 1986 sequel entitled Hardbodies 2.

<i>Burma VJ</i> 2008 Danish film

Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country is a 2008 Danish documentary film directed by Anders Østergaard. It follows the Saffron Revolution against the military regime in Burma. The "VJ" in the title stands for "video journalists." Some of it was filmed on hand-held cameras. The footage was smuggled out of the country, physically or over the Internet. Other parts of it were reconstructed, which caused controversy.

<i>I Hate Valentines Day</i> 2009 American film

I Hate Valentine's Day is a 2009 romantic comedy film written and directed by Nia Vardalos. The film stars Vardalos and John Corbett, previously seen together in Vardalos' hit 2002 film My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The film was released on July 3, 2009, by IFC Films.

<i>20,000 Days on Earth</i> 2014 British documentary film

20,000 Days on Earth is a 2014 British musical documentary drama film co-written and directed by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. Nick Cave also co-wrote the script with Forsyth and Pollard. The film premiered in-competition in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at 2014 Sundance Film Festival on 20 January 2014. It won two Awards at the festival.

<i>The Cave</i> (2019 Syrian film) 2019 Syrian documentary film

The Cave is a 2019 Syrian-Danish documentary film directed by Feras Fayyad and written by Fayyad and Alisar Hasan. A companion piece to his earlier film Last Men in Aleppo, the film profiles Dr. Amani Ballour, a physician in Ghouta who is operating a makeshift hospital nicknamed "the Cave" during the Syrian Civil War. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on September 5, 2019.

<i>Dog</i> (2022 film) 2022 film directed by Channing Tatum and Reid Carolin

Dog is a 2022 American comedy drama road film directed by Channing Tatum and Reid Carolin, both making their respective film directorial debuts, based on a story by Carolin and Brett Rodriguez. The film stars Tatum as an Army Ranger who is tasked with escorting the military dog of his fallen friend to his funeral. The film also stars Jane Adams, Kevin Nash, Q'orianka Kilcher, Ethan Suplee, Emmy Raver-Lampman, and Nicole LaLiberte in supporting roles. The film was produced by Free Association on a budget of $15 million.

<i>A Journal for Jordan</i> 2021 film by Denzel Washington

A Journal for Jordan is a 2021 American romantic drama film directed and co-produced by Denzel Washington from a screenplay written by Virgil Williams, based on the memoir A Journal for Jordan: A Story of Love and Honor by Dana Canedy. The film stars Michael B. Jordan and Chanté Adams in the lead roles, along with Jalon Christian, Robert Wisdom, and Tamara Tunie in supporting roles.

<i>The Changeling</i> (TV series) Horror fantasy television series

The Changeling is an American horror fantasy television series created by Kelly Marcel and directed by Melina Matsoukas based on the novel of the same name by Victor LaValle for Apple TV+. It premiered on September 8, 2023, with the first three episodes.

References

  1. 1 2 3 The Caveman's Valentine at Box Office Mojo
  2. George Dawes Green (1994). The Caveman's Valentine (1st ed.). Warner Books. ISBN   9780759521742.
  3. The Caveman's Valentine at Rotten Tomatoes
  4. The Caveman's Valentine at Metacritic OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  5. Munoz, Lorenza (January 9, 2002). "Spirit Awards Tilt Toward True Independence". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved December 19, 2022.