When hard-drinking, twice-divorced professor Samuel O’Shea (Gabriel Byrne) starts seeing things—Frankenstein at the bar, strangers breaking into Leonard Cohen songs, and conversations with his long-dead father, Ben O’Shea (Brian Gleeson)—he chalks it up to stress.
But a terminal brain tumor diagnosis sends him reeling into a surreal, darkly funny odyssey through memory, regret and an unexpected romance, Charlotte (Jessica Paré). Retreating to his family’s remote Irish cottage, Samuel tries to write the novel he’s always avoided—and instead begins rewriting his own story.
Infused with the music and spirit of Cohen, and directed by Matthew Bissonnette, “Death of a Ladies’ Man” is a poetic, emotionally charged dramedy, featuring Byrne in an award-winning performance that dances between heartbreak, absurdity, and hope.
The title is also the fifth studio album by Cohen, produced and co-written by Phil Spector in 1977.
I hadn’t been exposed to Cohen’s songs other than the majestic “Hallelujah,” which he delivers so gently and which Chicago’s own Jennifer Hudson sings so beautifully. This song shows up in the film just as Samuel is experiencing another hallucination.
Samuel has been hallucinating from the jump—first with his father, with whom he has unfinished business around his parents’ split, then with a barmaid who looks like a tiger and finally with Frankenstein at the bar with him. He hasn’t decided to put the bottle down yet.
Samuel is trying to kick his drinking habit while also sheltered away from women. However, this tactic hasn’t been very successful for him.
The ex-boyfriend of his new girlfriend shoots at them and afterward accidentally drives over a cliff. But is the girlfriend just another figment of Samuel’s imagination?
Cohen’s song “Did I Ever Love You?” came through during the AA meeting. Samuel bares his soul and seems to have a breakthrough at this point.
After that scene, he seems to sober up and recommit to a hard stance in restoring his life for his son and daughter.
But the grim reaper is walking alongside him as he finishes his book titled “Fathers Without Mothers.”
“Death of a Ladies Man” releases on VOD Friday, September 26, via Buffalo 8.