There's no way to describe the plot of "Sympathy for Delicious" without sounding a bit ridiculous. A paralyzed, homeless, once-popular DJ discovers his God-given healing power, and after teaming up with a rock band, pursues his dreams of fame. The rock band, naturally, is fronted by a shirtless, drunken singer named The Stain, played by Orlando Bloom.
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While the film achieves some cogent emotional impact and doesn't feel quite so ludicrous in its first hour, it loses significant dramatic potential through a lack of believable character development. Overall, though, "Sympathy for Delicious" is not all bad, and Mark Ruffalo deserves some credit for his directorial debut.
The film opens with wide shots of Dean, played by Christopher Thornton, who also wrote the screenplay. Dean is a stubborn, dispirited guy in a wheelchair, rolling his way through L.A.'s skid row. We learn that Dean was once an up-and-coming DJ named Delicious D through photographs and a close-up of his hands air-DJing as he sits alone in the back of a club. By the time we meet Dean, however, he is living out of his car and is partially paralyzed. Then, one morning, Dean approaches another homeless man, deliriously chanting the same word over and over while shaking violently. As Dean puts his hands on the forehead of the seemingly crazy man to check for fever, the frenzied man's eyes roll back and he falls over in shock. Scared, Dean leaves, only to find out later that the homeless man has been cured of his mental illness and remembers nothing. Father Joe, sincerely played by Ruffalo, recognizes Dean's gift and genuinely wants to use it to help the homeless community that he looks after. Dean bargains with Joe, and — somewhat begrudgingly — decides to cure the homeless with the touch of his hands.
The morality of both Dean and Father Joe is questioned when a rich man offers to pay a large sum for his disabled daughter to be cured. While Father Joe is eager for the large donation that will aid the homeless shelter, Dean couldn't care less about the sick people he effortlessly cures and just wants the money. To that end, he teams up with the aforementioned rock band. Drug addict bassist Ariel (Juliette Lewis) befriends Dean for his musical talent, while the rest of the band is rather gratuitously mad at him for cussing out their band's manager Nina (Laura Linney). However, The Stain, an unsuccessful riff on Jack Sparrow, convinces the band that Dean's "magical hand tricks" will bring them fame and success.
"Sympathy for Delicious" attempts to show how the transformative power of faith can lead to forgiveness — or miracles. However, the film is so concerned with its ultimate message that it fails to pay any attention to its characters. The audience never gets an opportunity to feel compassion for the avaricious Dean, who unconvincingly and suddenly loses his bitter resentment. Nevertheless, while there's nothing outstanding about Ruffalo's directing as such, for a first attempt "Sympathy" is visually enjoyable and free of substantial faults. The film maintains some strength through his subtle shots and his portrayal of Father Joe. While the film does have hopeful moments of powerful stimulation, it falls short in failing to provoke much sympathy for Dean.
