I'm Your Man

Leonard Cohen--songwriter, poet, former monk, ladies man, and sharp dresser--receives a near-hagiographical treatment in I'm Your Man, a part concert-part documentary in which his work is interpreted by an array of singers. Cohen tributes are nothing new, what with Jennifer Warnes' Famous Blue Raincoat and the multi-artist compilations Tower of Song and I'm Your Fan having preceded this one. But music producer Hal Willner, who has spearheaded similar projects focusing on Thelonious Monk, Kurt Weill, Harold Arlen, and Charles Mingus, is especially skilled at putting together rosters of diverse and unexpected artists, and he's done it again here, matching superstars U2 with the likes of Nick Cave, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Kate's offspring Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Beth Orton, Antony Hegarty (of the group Antony and the Johnsons), Jarvis Cocker, and others. Whether all of this works or not will naturally depend on the viewer's point of view. Cohen is no one's idea of a great singer, but he's certainly a distinctive one, with his ocean-deep basso profundo and the slow insinuations of a guy who, having been a Zen monk, certainly understands the virtues of patience; his lyrics, too, are sui generis, personal but rarely mawkish, at once plain and cryptic. To these ears, performances by Orton ("Sisters of Mercy"), Teddy Thompson ("Tonight Will Be Fine"), and the Handsome Family with Linda Thompson ("A Thousand Kisses Deep") come closest to capturing Cohen's spirit without actually impersonating him. On the other hand, the overly mannered stylings of the McGarrigles and Wainwrights are an acquired taste, at best; Rufus' louche posing, affected vocal delivery, and cute, tango-esque arrangement of "Everybody Knows" pretty much overwhelm the song (he's much better on "Chelsea Hotel No. 2"), and Martha's "The Traitor" is scant improvement. Cohen himself appears on just one number ("Tower of Song," with U2), but interview segments are scattered throughout director Lian Lunson's film; now in his seventies, he seems to delight in perpetuating his own legend, serving up elusive comments like "I was alive in the horror" and "Things got easier when I stopped expecting to win." Bonus material includes deleted scenes and more. --Sam Graham