The start sees Professor Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas), fretting over the upcoming weekend called ‘WordFest’ a literary event for young writers which brings his unbearable editor, Terry Crabtree (Robert Downey Jr.), James Lear (Tobey Maguire) a young student who is a talented but off-putting  as well as having his wife leave him and getting his boss, the university’s chancellor pregnant.  Tripp was a successful novelist once, but has not released anything in seven years, prompting the arrival of Crabtree, who he respects as a friend but hates as an editor; being jealous of other more prolific writers and having a young female student be attracted to him. 

This is a lot for any on man to deal with but in Douglas’ great performance he breathes life in every frame bringing great humility and experience to every scene he appears in, which is pretty much every scene. Tripp is a flawed character, who wants to make sure no-one else follows in his footsteps and finds it important to recognise something special in anyone, hence the line, ‘She had small shoulders like you’ to a girl he compares to Marilyn Monroe.  So many of the characters attempt to compare themselves to people who were greater than themselves, they fail to see the misguided intentions, putting someone onto a pedestal might result in unfilled potential.
But this use of flawed characters, is an extension of Hanson’s work in that all the male characters are flawed or bound by jealousy, greed, competition and sex (look at David Strathairn in ‘The River Wild’ bound up as wife Meryl Streep saves the day).  Hanson backs off with the camera somewhat and allows the character’s performance to take centre stage and this coming forward and nuturing of the performance to grow in front of the camera means the audience get so much more and the characters that could be hated end up gaining some empathy due to the warmth of the actors; Downey Jr. could have made Crabtree a bit of an asshole, which he is, but that smile is all the difference and the scenes between Douglas and Downey Jr., help with the portrayal of the character.

Hanson has one great shot in the film about half an hour, Tripp goes outside the Chancellor’s house to have a smoke and he spots James standing in the darkness at the bottom of the garden, this POV of James a shadow lit by the greenhouse as snow falls slowly down is quite beautiful, James then steps out of the shadows and approaches Tripp. As he talks, the pale James is again lit by the greenhouse and slow-motion snow.  It conveys the stillness of the moment and a director in control of this moment, it extends the narrative by giving more about character than plot.

A winning adaptation of Michael Chabon’s novel filled with great characters who tell the story that is old-fashioned in concept but executed by a very professional cast who have been given the freedom to deliver by a director who knows how to get it.  Wonderful.

Jamie Garwood
 
 

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