It is a very rare occurrence when one finds himself staring into a film wondering exactly what one is looking at and me, having lost my film virginity very early, i generally have the whole script figured out within the first twenty minutes; But not with Paper Man.
Intrigued by the trailers of a mature Jeff Daniels wrestling with his imaginary superhero friend, i dedicated a hour and a half of my best time to the film, with great expectations, and this is what i got out of it: Richard (Daniels) is a writer, in his late forties, who isn't really all quite there with his head. His wife Claire (Kudrow) drives him to the hamptons so that he can isolate himself a bit and find a vein to finish his next book. While in his hermit's retreat, Richard "hires" a baby-sitter (with no baby in sight) to keep him company. As Richard is little more than an overgrown infant, the two form a friendship based on his insanity and her cluelessness. Cue moments of liberation, and crash back to reality when the wife shows up.
And then, when the film was now over, i realised what i was looking at : Nothing.
Mark my words: one day there will be a beautiful film, perfectly shot and with the best actors in the world, about a man who goes shopping for groceries. Oh the humanity. Oh the human dimension.
Whatever possessed Lisa Kudrow to commit suicide with this role is beyond me; Did she read a different script ? Were there massive parts of the film that got left on the cutting room floor? Seriously, i don't want to sound harsh, but ..
Richard is obviously NOT a mid-life crisis case, more like a lunatic asylum case: why isn't the aspect of his insanity examined At All in the film ? If the relationship with the baby sitter needs to be a purely platonic one - and to tell the truth, there really isn't a relationship here, given that he's a manic delusional and she is clueless about it - why did the writer center it on a scene where she *thinks* he is coming on to her, while in fact he's just being a loonie, and then put absolutely no moment of connection between the characters in the film whatsoever? And worst of all.. What is the Plot of the film ? I'm amazed that a production of this calibre can still get the go-ahead without anyone stepping in and saying "this film has no story"; Here is a short summary of what happens: Loonie gets left alone, runs into a girl who hangs around him because money falls out of his pockets, her friends take advantage of his wallet, they throw a keg party. The End. Of Kieran and Michele Mulroney's career.
I can equate this film to only one other i have seen before, and it was an Andy Warhol film..
Here is a lesson for anyone who wants to be a film director, or writer, or even worse, both: before you get behind the camera, you must have had at least once, a moment where you busted in you'r best friend's house and yelled "I GOT A GREAT IDEA FOR A MOVIE". If you haven't had that, don't do it. Leave the impressionism to the french, and go down to the library to get some books on writing.
4/10 really, really pointless. Transformers was better.
