I rented this film with great anticipation. As I recall, this film was highly acclaimed by all. I don't remember hearing or reading one instance of negative press. I knew that the movie stars Michael Douglas in what many called his best performance in some time. I was delighted to find out that supporting roles were played by Robert Downey, Jr, Frances McDormand (you'll remember her from Fargo), Tobey Maguire, and Katie Holmes. Nevertheless, the movie was a little subpar. It wasn't terrible, but dissappointed my expectations. I was anticipating filet mignon, but what i got was filet o fish.


The story portrays Grady (Douglas) a university lit professor and distinguished novelist who has spent seven years unable to finish the follow up to his prize winning first novel. Coincidentally, the film begins with Grady's narration informing the audience that his wife left him that morning. James (Maguire) and Hannah (Holmes) are students in his class. Sarah (McDormand) is the Chancellor of the university and Grady's mistress. Robert Downey, Jr plays Crabtree, Grady's struggling editor, who needs a big hit before his career hits rock bottom. In essence this is a story about how a Grady is stuck in a writer's rut due to various preoccupations in his life (i.e., his wife, mistress, and the burden of a follow up novel) and how he finally finds himself anew after his dealings with James.

There is one scene where James happens upon a black and white film on TV. The astute reader of Oscar Wilde will recognize the dialogue as coming from The Picture of Dorian Gray. My hat goes off to the director for that one.

The actors are commended for their work; they all acted well, though it wasn't much of a stretch for any of them. Douglas played (a perhaps more disheveled than usual) Douglas, Holmes played the same role Holmes always plays (you've undoubtedly noticed that all of her film roles are Dawson's Joey with a bit more sexual prowess), and Robert Downey Jr plays his usual character. Maguire was his usual character (he fills the shoes of Chris O'Donnell's Scent of a Woman role for the aging O'Donnell) with a slight twist of estrangement and perhaps neurosis.

The problem with this film is that the story is poorly told. It seems to be a serious of scarcely related vignettes held together only by the fact that the same characters occupy each scene. Sarah is not a significant enough presence to make the audience really care whether she and Grady can get together (in fact, her main advantage as a story element is that we never meet Grady's wife.). The film makes obvious references to Hannah's love interest in Grady, which are more forgotten about than ever resolved. The character of James is a huge mess of confusion. He's a remarkable young writer, but how he actually influences Grady's character and work is very unclear. Moreover, the filmmakers draw much attention to his past without ever revealing any of the things that the viewers are bound to grow curious about. Moreover, as the film wears on, James appears to become the lovetoy of Crabtree, in such a way, again, that it appears that the director is pointing his finger and saying, "Look", and then quickly diverting our attention away as though that which was seen were nothing to be considered.

The various and pervasive story flaws make this film a misfire, not to mention that I just watched previously Finding Forrester which has a similar plot, but pulls it off without all the confusion.