Based on Solomon's experiences tutoring youthful felons in a maximum-security facility, Levity depicts the halting reentry of ex-con Manuel Jordan (Thornton, in a straggly wig) into society after spending twenty years behind bars for the killing of a teenaged liquor store clerk. Literally haunted by his crime (the specter of his victim appears frequently to speak with Jordan), Manuel believes that redemption is truly beyond his reach. All he can hope for is a small measure of forgiveness from his victim's sister Adele (Hunter). Homeless in the snow-covered streets of an unnamed city, Manuel finds shelter in a community center run by a charismatic street preacher (Freeman), who counsels him to let go of the past and move on with his life. Yet Manuel knows that he'll never achieve any peace of mind until he apologizes to Adele. Without revealing his identity, Manuel begins to follow Adele, who's initially wary of his attempts to befriend her. Gradually, she comes to trust the enigmatic stranger and asks him to speak with her teenaged son, named after her dead brother, who's fallen in with local gangs. As his involvement with Adele deepens, Manuel realizes that he can no longer prolong the inevitable and must come clean with her, regardless of the consequences.

Beautifully shot in Montreal by the Coen brothers' regular cinematographer, Roger Deakins (Fargo), Levity is undermined by Solomon's obvious handling of the material. There are no surprises in the narrative or the characters, who have been rather narrowly conceived. As a troubled club kid who latches onto Jordan, Dunst gives a lively, sympathetic performance. She and Freeman register strongest in a cast that otherwise appears drained of energy; even Hunter, who normally burns up the screen, is a bit on the bland side in her scenes with Thornton, Hollywood's favorite good-'ol-boy character actor. More infamous than acclaimed lately, for his short-lived fifth marriage to Angelina Jolie, Thornton is a talented actor/writer/director whose adaptation of his stage play Sling Blade (1996) won him an Academy Award. Since that film's surprise success, Thornton has continued working on both sides of the camera. He and longtime collaborator Tom Epperson wrote both A Family Thing (1996) and The Gift (2000); Thornton also directed All the Pretty Horses (2000), the critically panned adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. In 1998, Thornton was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the dark crime drama A Simple Plan. Three years later, Thornton hit the artistic jackpot with acclaimed performances in three radically different films: the slow-moving noir The Man Who Wasn't There, the romantic caper comedy Bandits and the intense drama Monster's Ball. In the latter film, Thornton eloquently portrays a racist death-row prison guard who finds unexpected redemption in the love of a former inmate's widow, a working-class African American woman (Oscar winner Halle Berry).

Unlike Monster's Ball or the powerful Dead Man Walking (1995), Levity is ultimately more affected than affecting with regard to the lead character's quest for forgiveness. Perhaps Solomon labored over the script too long. In the DVD's documentary "On the Set," he speaks of his fifteen-year struggle to bring this passion project to the screen. At one point, he even put his own house up for collateral to keep the project alive, much to his wife's chagrin. Solomon also discusses the film's problematic genesis further in the commentary with editor Pietro Scalia and the film's producer Adam Merims. While his persistence is admirable, his execution unfortunately leaves something to be desired—a little levity, perhaps?