Reality and fantasy combine in cult film

"American Splendor" brings to the screen the life story of the cantankerous Cleveland file clerk Harvey Pekar. Pekar, a doughy, balding grouch who carries his optimism like a concealed weapon, also authors comics about his everyday experiences and the people he meets.

Fine Line Features, the same production company that brought us "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," brings us another masterpiece about an almost famous antihero.

Directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini ("Off the Menu: the Last Days of Chasen's"), the film is spliced with comic scrawl animation and documentary, featuring the actual Harvey Pekar and his cohorts as narrators.

Paul Giamatti ("Big Momma's House" and "Saving Private Ryan") stars as Pekar opposite Hope Davis ("About Schmidt") as the comic's wife Joyce Brabner. James Urbaniak ("Legally Blonde 2" and "Sweet and Lowdown") plays the smarmy, sellout cartoonist R. Crum, who lends his expertise and famous name to illustrate Pekar's stories.

Judah Friedlander ("Meet the Parents") plays the Pekar's hysterically nerdy and clueless coworker Toby Radloff.

Pekar, who in real-life is semi-famous and almost successful, has been writing "American Splendor" comics since 1975. He writes the stories, illustrating them only with stick figures. Artists, such as Crum and others, fill in the visual component.

The stories, which have gained a cult following, feature his coworkers at the Veteran's Administration hospital, his wives, friends and the occasional old Jewish lady who holds up the supermarket checkout line by haggling for too long.

The funniest scenes in the film are when the real-life Pekar and his loved ones comment on Hollywood's interpretation of his life, career and appearance. "He doesn't even look like me," Pekar said of Giamatti.

The film launches into a whole new realm of "meta" when the Pekar and Joyce characters watch a stage play about the "American Splendor" comics and their own relationship.

The real-life Pekar speaks of the strange feeling he got from watching his life acted out on stage. He wonders aloud how he'll feel when the movie is released.

The movie's delicious ironies make up for the slew of brainless summer movies. Pekar is the superhero in the comic about his own life, but as David Letterman tells him during one of Pekar's many appearances on the "Late Show," he looks like a guy who sleeps on the bus. Pekar is also affected by an ailment that makes his throat horse and, often, his voice is no louder than a squeak, causing him to recoil to internal monologue.

Pekar can't muster the volume to respond when his second wife walks out on him and his "plebian lifestyle."

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Pekar then pours his frustrations and neuroses onto the page and into the comic. "American Splendor" becomes Pekar's diary. Despite this internalization, however, Pekar is truly in touch with the people around him. He is in tune to their voices and captures their mannerisms in his comics. His comics aren't caricatures. They depict word-for-word conversations he's had or overheard. He is thoughtful; he listens and remembers how the people around him act. He is even philosophical when confronted with a life threatening illness.

"American Splendor" – the comic title — is at first ironic because Pekar's lifestyle is far from glamorous, but there is beauty there. Pekar is faced with certain death and more certain anonymity. The comic books of his life are similar to the flimsy folders of dead VA patients that Pekar files hour after hour, day after day.

Pekar nests in a tiny apartment in the grayest neighborhood of Cleveland. The clutter of jazz records, books and schmutz seems to consume our favorite everyman, but the junk seems to clear when Pekar meets his neurotic match — Joyce. The mousy-looking Wilmington comic book store clerk teaches creative writing to prison inmates in her spare time.

Hope Davis slips neatly into the black wig and borrows a pair of spectacles from Joyce Carol Oates to play Pekar's wife. Joyce also has a penchant for — upon introduction — diagnosing mental illnesses. Toby: borderline autistic. David Letterman: megalomaniac.

Joyce and Harvey meet and decide to marry after only a week of courtship. Though they bicker constantly, they collaborate and earn critical acclaim after producing some of the most truthful and sardonic comic books about the obstacles they overcome together.

Pekar may lack the strength of Hulk or Batman. (After all, he can barely speak and has a weakness for orange soda.) But he turns out triumphant in the story of his own unpretentious tale.