What do you mean by "Zevon fans"?
Why the comparison to Tim Burton?
What do you mean by "he's clearly underexposed"? Are you saying Zevon is underexposed?
I remember At Close Range firstly because of the Madonna song "Live to Tell". When I saw the film I thought the performances were very mannered. (The risk of playing Sean Penn opposite Christopher Walken with a moustache.)
The film is not as good as Amelie, nor is it as good as most Tim Burton. It meanders a lot for the first half, but does get pretty good by the end.
Well, I think Amelie is a POS so clearly we have no middle ground on that but is "At Close Range" as good as most Tim Burton? I suppose you could make that argument, Burton doesn't really dabble in adult drama too often other than in Ed Wood, where clearly the material was so personal he broke through his adolescent malaise long enough to enjoy a genuine human relationship depicted on screen. Overall he is a hit or miss guy, he hits with Beetlejuice, Batman, Scissorhands and Mars Attacks, weird fun or schmaltz and whiffs at everything else, so maybe early Tim Burton? He is clearly a guy with serious issues, I think his divorce turned him into a hack for hire. I only brought him up because I saw Ed Wood and another Burton film on the "overlooked" list, which I thought was ridiculous. I am not trying to be rude but I have to ask, are you an American? I only inquire because you describe the acting in "At Close Range" as "mannered" and for those of us who have known people, especially in the rural parts of the mid atlantic, or just white trash (pardon the term) who speak and behave very similarly the characterizations are dead on.