Don’t bother to even sneek a peek inside the mind of Charles Swan III

A little Charlie Sheen goes a long way. That much became apparent when he ended up on a strange bender a couple of years back. While he’s stabilized (somewhat) and now holds down a day job as the star of a cable sitcom, the guy just isn’t a brilliant actor. So making a movie with him as a lead is a risky proposition, one that doesn’t end well for writer-director Roman Coppola’s A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III.

Sheen plays the film’s title character, a womanizing graphic designer who goes off the deep end when his girlfriend (Katheryn Winnick) breaks up with him. In a fit, he tosses a collection of her belongings (shoes) off the side of a cliff and, in the process, winds up driving over said cliff and crashing his car into some guy’s pool. Out for the count, Charles imagines his own funeral as a spectacle that includes a choreographed dance routine set to big band music. In fact, Charles internalizes all his conflicts in such an involved manner, Freud would have a field day. But that doesn’t make for a good film.

The movie spirals into a series of bizarre scenarios as Charles drifts in and out of consciousness. While the scenes are all imaginatively choreographed and often feature outlandish outfits (one scenario featuring Bill Murray as a John Wayne-like character, the guys are clad in outrageous cowboy outfits), in the end they don’t depict the inner thoughts of a character you care much about.  In fact, Sheen gives such a lackadaisical performance , it’s difficult to sympathize with him in any way. The all-star cast also includes Jason Schwartzman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Aubrey Plaza, but it’s all for naught. This movie is one giant mess that doesn’t make a lick of sense.