Day 1 -- The Answer Man

Released: January 18th, 2009

Starring: Lauren Graham, Jeff Daniels, Olivia Thrilby, Kat Dennings, Lou Taylor Pucci

Writer/Director: John Hindman

Description: A reclusive author of spiritual books, is pursued for advice by a single mother and a man fresh out of rehab.

[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these film have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]

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There are these rare moments in films that I choose to watch where I'm drawn in by an actor or actress, but come to find out that there another performer in the movie that I didn't know was involved, and I get much more excited. The Answer Man is one of those films, which I had originally chosen because of Lauren Graham. The movie had two of my favorite scene stealing actresses: Kat Dennings and Olivia Thirlby.

Dennings and Thirlby have rather small parts in the film, but I was drawn to their characters every time they were on screen, especially Thirlby's Anne. Anne, the obsessive compulsive receptionist for Graham's character's chiropractor office, was played so innocently, and in such a contrast to her sultry roles in other films, that is was genius. Ditto for Dennings, whose portrayal of Dahila, a dim-witted bookstore employee, showed a side I hadn't seen in the normally sassy and sarcastic actress.

It's a wonder to me that an actress, like Thirlby, who can be so captivating on screen hasn't really made an impact in the mainstream. If you don't believe me, watch "The Wackness," which also has a breakout performance from Josh Peck. Hopefully, she'll be the standout star of the Judge Dredd (Really?!) remake, and make a little noise outside of the indie world.

Despite the attempts by Thirlby and Dennings to completely steal the movie, Lauren Graham, Jeff Daniels and Lou Taylor Pucci do a good job of holding down the starring roles. Arlen (Daniels) is a spiritual self-help author who hit the big time 20 years ago, and immediately became a hermit. He doesn't really interact with anyone until he throws his back out and need the help of newly licensed chiropractor, Elizabeth (Graham). As he readjusts to life outside of his home, he can't help but be the angry recluse when a recovering alcoholic, Kris (Pucci), come to his door seeking advice. From there it's you typical rom-com, where Arlen and Elizabeth begin to fall in love, but it's destroyed when Kris' Dad dies and Elizabeth sees Arlen's "true side". Then, Arlen is finally honest with himself, and everyone lives happily ever after. Ugh.

I felt bad for the cast because they weren't given much help with the script, even though some of the advice from Daniels' Arlen Faber was well written and/or researched that it actually makes you think. For the most part, the writing was mediocre because I really didn't care if Arlen and Elizabeth ended up happily ever after or not, which meant that everything up to that point wasn't well told.

Graham's character is a less-quippy Lorelai Gilmore, but she still makes us care enough about that the scenes between Daniels and her at least come off as believable. I believe if they had more scenes with her child, played beautifully by Max Antiselli, the audience would've cared more about her and Arlen. They tried to show her as this over protective mother, but I didn't believe it. Again, more scene with the kid would have been helpful.

Oddly, Daniels' character was both great and confusing at the time. His performance was a little over the top, but I can forgive it since he's Jeff Daniels and he made me laugh a few times. My real problem with his character was that I never understood why he acted differently toward Kris then he would with his own fans. I guess the explanation was that the popularity of his books was too much to handle and his fans reminded him of that, but something in Kris reminded him of himself. Maybe I missed something, but in a romantic comedy I shouldn't be guessing like it's Inception.

The only story I truly cared about was Pucci's recovering alcoholic, Kris. His arc was actually well threaded throughout the movie. Despite Pucci tendency to overact in the opening scenes, he showed his characters emotions well. I caught myself wondering what was going on with him while Graham and Daniels were on screen, which isn't meant to criticize their acting, but rather praise Pucci performance. His line reading and emotion during the scene where he almost relapses was one of the highlights of the film.

Overall, the direction was just fine. John Hindman did a good job of capturing the mood of the film, and made great use of his location. I may be bias, but I believe Philadelphia, mainly Olde City and Center City, provide a great canvas for any director to use. It can be upscale, and urban at the same time, very similar to New York, but not as overdone.

The ending was a real problem for me. Sure, it resolved Arlen's issues and the mystery surrounding the book, but it did little to really finish the other character stories. I guess I'm supposed to believe that Kris' money problem disappeared because Arlen showed up and sold some book, which by the way wouldn't he have to give part of the sales to the publisher. I digress, the ending wasn't one of my favorite, but it didn't ruin the movie, either.

Rating: 7/10 -- Kept me interested through out, but nothing really special about it. If you a fan of Dennings or Thirlby, it's a good early work to check out. Especially, if you've only seen Nick and Nora, and The Wackness. But it could have been much better.