Review

Director Pace has fashioned an understated yet profoundly disturbing psychological portrait of a quiet, non-descript Everyman who sinks under the weight of life's daily banalities with most tragic results. There's a palpable undercurrent of terror as beleaguered Billy disconnects. He's less and less able to handle the unceasing commonplace, petty harassments that beset us all. As his feelings of overwhelmed helplessness increase, he's consumed by guilty memories of the loss of significant loved ones throughout his troubled past. As the pressure builds, Billy finally frees himself -- gun in hand -- atop a water tower in an endless stretch of Midwestern farmland. Charming Billy is an unnerving and intriguing exploration of numbing alienation.