Vain is not usually a word used to describe chrome-domed character actor Ed Harris. However his actions in producing, directing and starring in the painfully dull Pollock can be described in no better way.
The film follows Jackson Pollock as he gets drunk, acts like as ass, gets called a genius a lot, ruins people's lives, oh, and paints some of the most famous pictures of the 20th century as well. There is little in the way of character progression since a beard seems to be all that success adds to Pollock's life.
The idea seems to have been to convey the tortured life of a genius. However extended boughts of Ed Harris method acting indescribable inner emotional torment simply isn't interesting, and it certainly isn't moving. The end result is akin to a home video of a man in a toilet with constipation for two hours, only the home video would probably stink less.
Ed Harris' directorial style is almost non-existent, with cinematography that seems to find keeping people's heads in shot and not wobbling too much a challenge. A scene where Pollock confronts his first giant canvas looks superb, however it makes up only 60 seconds of this drawn out affair.
The one conscious decision that seems to have been made is to show Pollock's paintings for as short a time as possible. So we see Ed Harris fulfilling and intellectual wet dream as he daubs and dribbles paint everywhere but we catch only fleeting glimpses of the end results. The fact that someone calls Pollock a genius every 10 minutes without fail can't compensate for a film that doesn't trust the audience to make it's own judgements about the protagonists art.
Jackson Pollock was a flawed genius, and whilst Pollock the movie has more flaws than an average skyscraper it lacks any hint of genius. Your time would be better spent visiting an art gallery, or if that isn't possible even a 'disease of the week' TV movie would be better than watching this, at least it would be shorter.