This was maybe the most boring documentary I’ve ever seen.

In “Stone Reader,” filmmaker Mark Moskowitz reads a severely out-of-print novel from the early 1970’s titled ‘The Stones of Summer’ by a one-time author named Dow Mossman.

Feeling it is one of the best and most overlooked books he’s ever read, Moskowitz ventures out on his first and presently (Dec. 29, 2006) only film to locate the never-heard-from-again writer to find out why such a talent never produced another book.

This picture is over two hours long. It definitely wasn’t edited for short attention spans. It contains long running interview footage in dire need of a cutaway.

The worst thing about “Stone Reader” is Moskowitz inability to stick to the film’s objective – to find Mossman. The filmmaker side tracks several times in his interviews to discuss other notable authors and monumental works of literature with those in literary circles.

At one point, Moskowitz is talking to a Mossman’s former literary manager and presents an amateur list of the best first books of the century. The filmmaker pulls them out of his bag and sets them on the manager’s desk…and that’s it. He never tells the camera (or his audience) what books they are. He never even shows the covers for us to see. He simply has this moment with this manager, and we don’t get to share it.

The film DID take a nice sidebar, however, where Moskowitz and his sources discuss other one-book writers, such as Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird), and why these famed writers only had one book in him or her. That was all relevant and interesting to the director’s objective; however, the irrelevant material could have been cut. At least 25 minutes of this over-two-hour documentary could have been shaved off with that alone.

Another fault of the movie, Moskowitz never even tells us what ‘The Stones of Summer’ is about. He keeps describing it as this incredibly verbose story, but he never gives us even a Reader’s Digest version of the book’s plot. We simply have to take his word for it.

I’m sure someone as hardcore into novels as Moskowitz is will LOVE this movie, but for me, it was a battle to stay awake.

At least the picture ended pretty strong, Moskowitz finds Mossman, and learning the writer’s reasons for not producing another book, learning his situations and philosophy on such matters was very interesting and worth examining.

As bad as this picture was, it somehow created a cult following for Mossman’s book, which led to Barnes & Noble reviving its publication. You can now find it online at Bn.com or at Amazon.com.

I have read an excerpt of ‘The Stones of Summer,’ and I think it’s just as likely to lose my interest as the film “Stone Reader” did.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?