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Dylan Kidd’s debut echoes some of Steven Soderbergh’s and La Bute’s films with its painful scrutiny of modern adult relationships. Roger is so wrapped up in his idea of male independence and the eventual emasculation of men by women that he kills off any chance of forging a lasting relationship with the opposite sex. Campbell Scott is a revelation as Roger, making the character an arrogant chauvinist one-minute, then a pathetically needy figure the next. Roger emerges as a sympathetic and almost tragic figure, a man whose warped view of men and women wrecks not only his romantic life, but his work and family relationships as well. When Roger takes Nick to a bar to demonstrate the successful way to meet women, they end up sharing drinks and frank conversation with Andrea and Sophie, played by Elizabeth Berkley and Jennifer Beals respectively. Berkley has been derided over the years for her role in Showgirls (1995), but she turns in a sweet performance here as the first women that Roger introduces to Nick. Beals is also very good, particularly when she shares her a romantic moment and passionate kiss with Nick. Like Berkley and Beals, Rosselini’s is also a strong female character, a working woman who, like many men, indulges in casual relationships but isn’t judged harshly for it. The character could have been presented as a cold-hearted bitch who uses men, but this isn’t the impression we get. She almost a maternal figure for Roger, and when he loses her, it severely dents his confidence and, of course, bruises his ego. When she ends her relationship with Roger, she breaks the news to him as diplomatically as possible, but Roger cannot take the rejection, resulting in Roger’s eventual odyssey through the night-time streets of New York with Nick. Kidd avoids indulging in an overtly flashy visual style, with one scene (the initial ‘advice’ that Roger’s gives to Nick on the streets as they watch women walk by) simply shown in a lengthy take using a long lens. We are free to observe Roger and come closer to understanding why he holds the opinions he does. Tragically for Roger though, he also understands, but is too stubborn to face up to his faults and how these opinions have ruined his life.
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