Leonard Maltin Says:
On a recent episode of Secret’s Out, I recommended The Human Stain, one of my favorite films of recent years that didn’t find the audience it deserved. One of its stars, Ed Harris, can always be counted on to give a solid performance. If you haven’t seen Pollock, which he also directed, you’ve missed one of his greatest portrayals.
Harris spent a decade preparing to make this screen biography of the fabled modern artist Jackson Pollock, who struggled for recognition in the 1940s even as he battled his inner demons. Marcia Gay Harden won an Oscar for her portrayal of the woman who put her own career on hold to nurse and nurture Pollock and help him achieve success. But with a self-destructive artist like this, the next pitfall is never far away. Pollock is a demanding but exceptional movie.