The Caveman's Valentine (2001)

This is easily one of Samuel L. Jackson's greatest movies of his great career. The movie itself is very chilling and has almost a depressing tone to it. Any one who can appreciate great acting and an incredible plot should see this movie

Fmovies: A crazy, misunderstood man Romulas Ledbetter(Jackson) hiding from his personal demons, lives in a cave in New York. Musician turned recluse, believes the Chrysler Tower has some sort of watch over him. He finds a young man who is frozen to death on a tree! Another homeless man who is a friend of the deceased and Romulas gives him some information that sparks of a conspiracy that the young man was murdered by David Leppenraub (Colm Feore) a prominent art photographer. How can he prove this though? His own daughter who is a police officer and the authorities do not believe someone they all think is insane. Romulas does some investigating of his own and then begins the intrigue of the film. Samuel L Jackson puts on an easily Oscar winning performance in this excellent spine tingling whodunit thriller.

The reviews are up and down for this one, and it may be because of the psycho scenes. As the first reviewer noted, it does a good job of getting the viewer inside the psycho's head, but if you aren't into strange scenes with psychotic visions, confusing sequences, etc you might find it tedious. These aren't the crisp psycho scene like in The Cell, but more like visions. The plot is good, and the supporting acting is adequate. But watching this nut stumble around trying to catch a crook might be too off the wall for some people. I'd give it a 6.5/10.

The Caveman's Valentine fmovies. It's not really a cave. It's more like a rock shelter. But whatever we call it, it is home to Romulus Ledbetter (Samuel L. Jackson), a sensitive, and sometimes delusional, homeless man in Manhattan. One winter morning, he discovers a dead man outside his abode. But who is this person, and how did he end up outside of Romulus' cave? Or, could the dead man be just another one of Romulus' delusions? The rest of the film follows Romulus, in his quest to solve the mystery.

One of the film's strengths is Jackson's fine performance. With his long curly locks, his dark and grubby attire, his distinctive way of walking, and his stutter, Jackson gives depth to his character, and entreats empathy for a group of people who are too often stereotyped as worthless.

Another strength is the film's ability to contrast street life with high society. Romulus' quest carries him to society's elite. In one sequence, we see images of torture, while listening to opera. In another sequence, we see a homeless man playing classical piano to an audience of art lovers. The contrast is marvelous.

The film's downside is the contrived and hokey plot, with tons of improbable occurrences. Also, secondary roles seem hollow, and exist mainly to advance the plot.

"The Caveman's Valentine" is worth seeing once, for Jackson's sensitive and persuasive portrayal of a homeless man. I just wish the writers could have found some other, more plausible, reason for Romulus to interact with New York City's cultural elite.

I shall not review the story. I've read all the submitted reviews. I am an MD and as such see this picture from a different standpoint than that of a movie-goer. I think it is the best acting from the standpoint of being INSIDE of a paranoid schiz I'm aware of because you can see and feel the confusion. If you are confused by the jumping around so too is the poor psycotic. His superior mentality is used as a pianist as well as a caring person for others. He fights to maintain reality but "where is it" or "which is it?" Of course there is no clearing up at the end as there seldom is. But that is the beauty of this film. Feel and understand the plight of such a victim? Now maybe see it again.

It's a very nice film with a suspenseful and mysterious plot about an insane homeless man (who once was a talented piano player) which solved by himself a crime scene. The plot starts being very strange and puzzling, because we watch the happenings through the insane guy's mind, and everything seems to be a bit confusing. However, that's the best part of the movie to me! It's mysterious, unexplained, bizarre and has some strange scenes (which pass only inside his mind) of pure delusion, and shot in dark and surreal way. Great cinematography, I must say! The acting is also brilliant, especially by Samuel L. Jackson, who plays the insane guy, ROMULUS LEDBETTER. He's an excellent actor and one more time he proves it, as a great part of this film is just his acting work! The film has a great soundtrack as well! I hadn't heard of this movie so far so it was a very good surprise to me.