The movie is enjoyable enough in its first half, with Zia and his traveling companions (Eugene, a Russian musician, and McCall, a young woman who claims she never killed herself) being entertaining and interesting enough on their own to keep the story going. For the most part, the story doesn’t really need them to be dead. But about halfway through, they find Tom Waits sleeping in the street, and suddenly it’s a whole different movie.
Waits plays Kneller, a man who runs sort of a summer camp for the deceased. At Kneller’s camp, the people seem to be happy. It’s the first ray of sunshine in the film. Tom Waits appears to be playing himself, with most of Kneller’s dialogue sounding like Waits’ stage patter. He’s always fun to watch, and it’s really interesting to see a character based on his actual persona inserted into this realm.
