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Review

One of the more difficult accomplishments in film is to capture the creative process at work. Artist, author, actor, composer, they all seem to be painted with the same broad brush stroke. There are, to be sure, a few exceptions, such as Pollock, an intense, challenging portrait of noted 20th-century painter Jackson Pollock. Directed with competence but acted with brilliance by Harris, the film isn't able to fully flesh out Pollock as a man, but Harris has superbly conveyed the drive, frustration, technique and evolution of an artistic genius. The story follows Pollock's struggling early years in New York's 1940s art scene, to his romance and marriage to artist Lee Krasner (Harden), to his eventual celebrity, all the while given to bouts of alcoholic binges and self-destructive behavior. As the guiding force in Pollock's life, Oscar winner Harden excels as the supportive Krasner, whose belief in her husband's ability never waivers. Ultimately, Pollock may follow the conventions of the biographical genre, but thanks to Harris' tour de force performance, it's an invigorating glimpse at a most unconventional man.