Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song – 7.8

The title acknowledges the film’s duality – one part about the man, the other about the song. The former is interesting but leaves the singer as inscrutable as he was going in: ladies’ man? Zen monk? fraud victim? poet? The story of the song is more satisfying, and the song is great. I wonder, however, if I wouldn’t have been happier listening to Jeff Buckley, or Brandi Carlile, or John Cage singing more of the alleged 160 verses than getting teased, time and again, with the same two. Talking heads were purposefully and tastefully integrated, and Cohen’s music, which generally defines “lugubrious,” comes off quite well.