"Pollock" is both an absorbing yet disturbing portrait of an artistic genius told in an all consuming manner by director and star Ed Harris. Its strength is also its weakness. The character Jackson Pollack monopolizes almost all the screen time of this film, imbuing us with a tormented and tragic figure, insecure in his craft and in his own being, even as he achieves acclaim as America's greatest living artist. He is an alcoholic apt to pout and to withdraw when he cannot have his way. He shows insensitivity to the love around him and cannot control the inner rage that ironically propels his greatest works. Yet there is the other tragic figure, Lee Krasner, (in a well played role by Marcia Gay Hardin) who we know little about except as the support that hold Pollock up every time he falls. It is this imbalance which detracts from an otherwise earnest and powerful story. In commanding so much screen presence, Ed Harris as Pollock, repulses more than enlightens us on this unique, pacesetting artist
