"Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff," famed underground comic book icon Harvey Pekar once painfully observed. This sentiment sets the backdrop for "American Splendor," the autobiographical comic book series documenting Pekar's life and, more recently, the film that sings his inglorious swan song.

Set almost entirely in the gritty underbelly of Cleveland, the writer/director combo of Shari Springer Bergman and Robert Pucini carefully and stylishly document Pekar's life before, during and after the emergence of "American Splendor," a comic which garnered a fierce cult following and critical acclaim for its unflinching portrayal of everyday life. The result is a visually stunning and ambitious film of mesmerizing proportions, blurring the fine line between fiction and reality to the point of nonexistence. Truly something to be seen, it's a work as vivid and animated as the comic it portrays.

Paul Giamatti (unwarrantedly robbed of an Oscar nomination) plays Pekar, a man cast so far adrift down the wrong path in life he can barely muster the energy to smile. Twice divorced and stuck in a dead-end job as a file clerk, Pekar wears his misery and self-loathing like a badge of courage. He is self-deprecation incarnate, a man helplessly caught up in the tangled web of his dead end existence.

His only escape from such banality is his extensive record and comic collections, and it is through these two art forms that he takes comfort and solace. A chance meeting and lasting friendship with famed comic book illustrator Robert Crumb proves to be his ticket out of his disheveled routine, as Crumb takes it upon himself to illustrate and distribute Pekar's rough sketches (they're stick figures, in fact) of his mundane lifestyle into a comic of itself. "American Splendor" wins a devoted following from readers and critics alike, transforming Pekar from a hapless nobody to a local hero.

Through the comic's growing fan base he meets Joyce (Hope Davis), his third wife, a free-spirited liberal activist as caught up in her own world as Pekar is with his. In spite of their individualistic personalities, the two work their marriage through numerous rough spots, most notably Harvey's brief bout with cancer, which the two document into an illustrated novel entitled "Our Cancer Year."

If this sounds like your typical rags-to-riches saga, it's anything but. In fact, Pekar's life changes little throughout the course of the film. He continues on with his job as a file clerk. His apartment is still a chaotic mess of dirty dishes, half empty mugs of coffee and assorted jazz records and comics. The success of the comic paints Pekar into an ugly corner.

He can't put his miserable existence behind him because it's all inspiration for the next issue. If he wasn't unhappy, where would the comic be?

We've all seen films where the hero struggles to find happiness and finally finds escape, the light at the end of the dark tunnel. What makes "American Splendor" intriguing is that Pekar never escapes the dark and sees the light, but rather takes the dark and makes it a little lighter.

"American Splendor" is one of those rare films where everything just falls into place. The acting is top notch, led by Giamatti, whose frighteningly accurate take on Pekar's mannerisms and tics should no doubt catapult him into the stratosphere of Hollywood's A-list. The direction is nothing short of groundbreaking, a true cinematic achievement which splices itself between live action, cartoon animation and interviews with the real Harvey Pekar and his wife, Joyce Brabner.

Bergman and Pucini craft Pekar's story into a film with so many moves and genuinely inspired moments that if one scene (for whatever reason) leaves you unfulfilled, there are plenty others fit to compensate and fill the void. Pekar himself plays the role of the narrator, providing an often hilarious touch which further dulls the line between fiction and reality.

In one of the film's most humorous scenes, Pekar, as the narrator, critiques Giamatti's performance, stating "Here's our man, or the guy who plays me anyway. He doesn't look anything like me."

The only downside to "American Splendor" is that it ends. Luckily, the bonus features provided with the DVD are sure to please viewers hungry for more. Behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the film, along with cast and crew commentaries from Giamatti, Davis, directors Bergman and Pucini, and Pekar, complement the film nicely and are certainly worth a look.

As the saying goes, what doesn't kill us only makes us stronger. By that measure, "American Splendor" may be the strongest film of 2003.

"American Splendor": A

DVD features: AB