THE CAVEMAN'S VALENTINE

Year: 2001
USA: Universal Focus
Cast: Samuel L Jackson, Aunjanue Ellis, Ann Magnuson, Tamara Tunie, Anthony Michael Hall, Colm Feore, Damir Andrei, Rodney Eastman, Joris Jarsky, Peter MacNeill, Kate McNeil, Jay Rodan, Leonard L Thomas
Director: Kasi Lemmons
Country: USA
USA: 105 mins
USA Rated: R for language, some violence and sexuality
USA Release Date: 2 March 2001 (Limited Release - Los Angeles and New York)

Synopsis

In Kasi Lemmons' penetrating and touching neo-Gothic thriller THE CAVEMAN'S VALENTINE, Samuel L Jackson delivers a powerful performance as Romulus Ledbetter, a man caught on the sharp edge between genius and madness.

A former Julliard-trained classical musician and devoted family man, Romulus now lives as an outcast in a netherworld on the edge of Manhattan. Haunted by delusions of a powerful adversary, Cornelius Gould Stuyvesant, who he believes malevolently charts his every move from atop the Chrysler building.

Ledbetter is drawn out of his insanity to track down the killer of handsome young drifter Scotty Gates (Sean MacMahon), whose frozen corpse he discovers hanging in a tree outside his cave-like dwelling. Though the police dismiss the transient Gates' death, Ledbetter is convinced that he was murdered by David Leppenraub (Colm Feore), a prominent art photographer for whom the boy often posed as a model.

But who is going to believe the rantings of a paranoid schizophrenic living in a cave? Not his daughter Lulu (Aunjanue Ellis), a young police officer. Not Leppenraub's privileged friends in New York's art world. Alone with his voices and his visions, Romulus must piece together the twisted puzzle, risking his life and the remaining shreds of his sanity to bring justice to another lost soul.