Man About Town

Movies about a man going through a mid life crisis seems to have always struck a chord with the film going public. Rather than face our own dilemmas we can set back for awhile and watch someone else try to cope. These self reflective flicks are difficult to manage. You have to have the right amount of pathos generated for the protagonist to let the audience care about him. Even in an extreme case such as the film ‘Falling Down’, Michael Douglas was able to create an emotional bond with he viewers while he is going ballistic in a fast food restaurant. While the film ‘Man About Town’ by Mike Binder has a strong enough premise but the choice of its main character leaves something to be desired. He is a talent agent, a person who lives on the abilities of others and is seen by the public and most other films as a low form of life. To be fair, a talented agent is necessary for the success of his clients. But like lawyers people in this profession have some public relations issues.

Jack Giamoro (Ben Affleck) is a talent agent specializing in television writers. He is approaching middle age and is starting to feel his life closing in on him. Recently his father, Ben (Howard Hesseman) has suffered a stroke and is how living with Jack and his wife Nina (Rebecca Romijn). Much to Jack’s concerns Ben is losing contact with reality. When Jack walks in on his father Ben is watching some pornography. Ben manages to mutter that this was Jack’s mother’s favorite show. Trying to get in better touch with himself Jack takes a journal writing course conducted by Dr. Primnkin (John Cleese). In his first attempts are writing in the journey all Jack can say about his wife is she is a strong swimmer. Personal and professional problems start to rise up around Jack. He is suspicious that his wife is cheating on him. This is not unexpected since he admits to his journal that he waited to long to marry and is now set in his ways. He treats Nina as a possession instead of a spouse. Jack is also trying to keep his talent agency afloat. Part of this is landing a prime client, David Lilly (Jerry O'Connell) and keeping current clients such as Phil Balow (Adam Goldberg). This leaves Jacks staff; Arlene (Gina Gershon), Morty (Binder) and Alan (Kal Penn), holding down the fort while Jack starts on his mid lie crisis. After seeing her father in law naked in the living room she breaks down and confesses to Jack that she has been sleeping with Phil. Jack reacts by throwing Nina out of the house and threatening to terminate his contract with Phil. This one revelation has a dire affect on Jack both professionally and personally. Through a series of flashbacks Jack shows the viewers what he believes to be the root causes of his problems. He was a slightly over weight child often dominated by his older brother. His brother, Anthony (Spencer Forbes) even went so far as to steal Jack’s first girl friend away from him. During the beginnings of his career as a agent Jack was unable to successfully cope with rejection. This is a little odd consider part of his job is to reject potential clients that do not seem like revenue streams. Jack starts to pour his inner most secrets into his journal in an attempt to make some sense of his life. This brings us to the second act of this flick. Taking Dr. Primnkin’s class along with Jack is Barbi Ling (Ling Bai). She is an aspiring script writer who has been rejected time and time again by Jack and his agency. As part of her plot for revenge Barbi joins the class and eventually steals Jack’s journal. Now in possession of his secrets she goes on to blackmail Jack. Since Barbi now works as a gossip columnist at some tabloid this threat seems very real to the lamented Jack.

Here is a film that has potential but loses some focus. It tries to span too many genres at once. If it had concentrated on the storyline between Jack and Nina and left out the whole revenge of the rejected writer theme the result would have been much more cohesive. There was enough here to hold as a simple man at a cross roads in his life instead of trying to become a revenge farce as well. Director Mike Binder has been an actor for sometime and forayed into directing with gripping television such as ‘American Gothic’ and the very forgettable ‘Blankman’. He has style and it shows here. He uses a split screen with great effect showing Jack writing in his journal while the other panel shows the events of his childhood. This technique falls short when he uses both halves of the screen to show exactly the same thing. The musical cues here are great especially a cover of the Bangles song ‘Our Lips are Sealed’. Binder also has a flair for imaginative bridge cuts such as one where a tight shot on Affleck pulls out, swoops out of a window, over the city and pushes back to Affleck now in his car.

The cast here is for the most part rather good. Ben Affleck is affable enough that the audience can feel for his predicament despite the profession of his character. As an actor he may have his share of less than successful films but that is only because he is willing to take a chance on his projects. Here Affleck has to show a man spiraling down into one of the worse places in his life. He maintains an emotional connection to the audience the whole time. Rebecca Romijn also has a chance here to show off a little dramatic ability that other films did not. She is starting to really get an opportunity to grown as an actress. John Cleese does what he as always done best playing the wacky but strangely insightful professor. On the other end of the supporting cast Ling Bai is incredibly annoying. Her role is not only unnecessary but she has little talent for comedy.

Lion’s Gate brings this film to DVD with fairly good specifications. The video is anamorphic 2.35:1. The color balance is excellent with realistic hues and great contrast. The Dolby 5.1 audio provides a full, rich sound field especially with song of the music in the background. There are a few extras including an outtakes reel, some deleted scenes and a few alternate takes. There is a featurette called ‘Talk to my agent’ that is funnier than most making of presentations. The film may not hold together for all three acts but there are some fine performances and enough moments to make this a reasonable watch.

Posted 02/29/07