I found this on Netflix streaming. At the end is a very short dedication to a homeless couple who lived outside the Bettany and Connelly home.
Set in New York, Anthony Mackie is Tahir, homeless and plays makeshift drums on the street to earn spending money, mostly for food. He is an undocumented immigrant from Nigeria and seems very nice and kind.
Also homeless in the New York streets is Jennifer Connelly as Hannah, who also appears to be a drug addict. (She is very thin in this movie, making me wonder if she lost weight for the role.) Their lives intersect.
One several days we see him sort of following her around, not sure why. When she confronts him he says it is because she has his jacket tied around her waist, and he wanted it back. He had just spent a short time locked up and much of his stuff was stolen while he was gone from his nighttime alley.
So the two become friends of sorts, then later start to refer to each other as boyfriend-girlfriend. They seem to make a genuine connection.
The movie is well-written and well-acted but is never a fun or entertaining movie. The topic is too bleak, homeless in New York during a winter. However I am glad I took the time to watch it.
SPOILERS: Hannah's husband was killed and she left home, abandoning her young son, I believe in Dallas (the dialog was unclear), and he dad makes occasional trips to New York to try to find her. As the movie is ending we see her on a bus, presumably finally kicking her habit and going home to her son. Tahir, it turns out, had joined Boko Haram and finally realized that was wrong and sought to clean up his life in New York. He gets sick and dies, perhaps of pneumonia. Hannah wraps his body and straps it to a makeshift raft, sending it out into the Hudson.
Set in New York, Anthony Mackie is Tahir, homeless and plays makeshift drums on the street to earn spending money, mostly for food. He is an undocumented immigrant from Nigeria and seems very nice and kind.
Also homeless in the New York streets is Jennifer Connelly as Hannah, who also appears to be a drug addict. (She is very thin in this movie, making me wonder if she lost weight for the role.) Their lives intersect.
One several days we see him sort of following her around, not sure why. When she confronts him he says it is because she has his jacket tied around her waist, and he wanted it back. He had just spent a short time locked up and much of his stuff was stolen while he was gone from his nighttime alley.
So the two become friends of sorts, then later start to refer to each other as boyfriend-girlfriend. They seem to make a genuine connection.
The movie is well-written and well-acted but is never a fun or entertaining movie. The topic is too bleak, homeless in New York during a winter. However I am glad I took the time to watch it.
SPOILERS: Hannah's husband was killed and she left home, abandoning her young son, I believe in Dallas (the dialog was unclear), and he dad makes occasional trips to New York to try to find her. As the movie is ending we see her on a bus, presumably finally kicking her habit and going home to her son. Tahir, it turns out, had joined Boko Haram and finally realized that was wrong and sought to clean up his life in New York. He gets sick and dies, perhaps of pneumonia. Hannah wraps his body and straps it to a makeshift raft, sending it out into the Hudson.