The Million Dollar Hotel is an engrossing and touching movie about people who are outside of the accepted norms of society. These are people who are not "normal" and therefore forgotten, left to live amongst themselves, apart from the rest of society. The setting is the Million Dollar Hotel, a former extravagant hotel that is now a flop house. The hotel residents are mentally ill people who have no insurance and cannot afford proper treatment. With no one to care for them, they are left to their own devices living together in the fleabag that is the Million Dollar Hotel.

The movie begins where it ends. In the opening scene a young man is seen running across the hotel rooftop and he jumps off and falls to his death. He then narrates the movie from beyond the grave and takes the viewer full circle through the story that led to his jump from the rooftop. His name is Tom Barrow - known as Tom Tom, and he is a mentally ill resident of the hotel. Previously there had been another death, one of the hotel residents, Israel (Izzy) Goldkiss had fallen to his death from the hotel rooftop. Although it appeared to be a suicide, Izzy's wealthy father believes that his son had been pushed from the roof and sends an FBI agent to investigate the matter. FBI detective Skinner discovers the difficulty of his assignment as he finds himself having to interview a collection of people with various mental disturbances. The restless, child-like Tom Tom seems to relish the excitement caused by the investigation and detective Skinner befriends Tom Tom in the hopes of getting information from him. Eventually Skinner begins to feel a connection with the residents of the Million Dollar Hotel because he was born with a physical deformity and has had the experience of feeling like an outcast.

Tom Tom develops feelings for another hotel resident, the ghostly Eloise. Emotionally detached and living in her own world, Eloise keeps to herself. The only real human contact that she receives is sex from various men around the hotel. She has the feeling that sex is all she is good for and that is all any man would ever want from her. In the midst of the commotion and drama surrounding the murder investigation, Tom Tom finds his chance to speak to the elusive Eloise. Tom Tom's child-like feelings towards Eloise are not sexual in nature, and a warm and tender relationship develops between them as Eloise finds for the first time that someone really cares about her and does not want to use her for sex.

There is also a subplot in which one of the hotel residents, Geronimo has created some unusual artwork - paintings using tar. Izzy's death had received media attention due to the fact that he was the son of a multi-millionaire. Geronimo and the rest of the hotel residents concoct a plan hoping to cash in on the media attention surrounding Izzy. They claim that the tar paintings were actually created by Izzy and attempt to sell them.

The Million Dollar Hotel is very moving and highly worth seeing. Director Wim Wenders uses the camera brilliantly and the cinematography is spectacular. There are wonderful performances from Jeremy Davies, Milla Jovovich. Davies skillfully blends silliness and simplicity with deep mature feelings making Tom Tom an interestingly complex character. Jovovich is brilliant as Eloise, the troubled girl who finally allows herself to feel.

Tags: jeremy davies, the million dollar hotel, wim wenders
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