Comedy

MOVIE REVIEW . Man in the Chair

To be honest, when I first heard the title, I thought someone had adapted Edogawa Rampo’s The Human Chair. You know, the one about the crazy man who falls for an attractive woman, and then creates and delivers to her a Trojan-chair that conceals him in all his lecherous glory. It was only after reading the rest of the press materials that the connotations of directorial glory were conveyed. While it may not be Rampo, this Man in the Chair is none the less interesting.

Man in the Chair follows the unlikely friendship between Cameron Kincaid (Michael Angarano), a troubled high-school boy and Flash Madden (Christopher Plummer), a cranky elderly former film director, and their attempt towards making a student film to provide entrance for the former into film school. But that’s really only half of it. Man in the Chair has much more on its mind than simple feel-good drama centering around film appreciation. Man in the Chair is concerned with both the dream and the reality of the film business, the glitter that lures, and the cold gutter that awaits one once the industry has had its fill of them. It’s out to make you think just as much as it is to entertain.

That being said, the material of depth takes a short while to get to, and may not be readily apparent at the get-go. The film opens to some of the worst stutter-cut editing this side of a mid-nineties Metallica video, complete with our elderly protagonist shouting and gesticulating at a theater screen as if he was an extra in “The Unforgiven 3″. This is immediately followed by a cheesy clichéd high-school introductory sequence where the youthful co-protagonist hops his BMX over the hood and roof of the school bully’s sports car in a busy school parking lot, and the obligatory hall-locker meeting where his best friend tells him how crazy/cool he is. But once you make it past this point, the story settles into place. Well, the talentless editor rears his ugly head from time to time, but for the most part it’s golden.

Our journey, and in turn Cameron’s film project, takes us from the movie houses (where Cameron first encounters Flash) to the studio back lots, to the nursing homes that house Hollywood’s forgotten it-kids. Writers, directors, stars, all can be found, in various states of neglect, sustained by their respective unions, but abandoned by their younger kin. Writer/Director Michael Schroder (The Glass Cage, Cyborg 3) takes great care in focusing the narrative on the little people of the film industry, the gaffers, the electricians, and grips that fuel the industry but whose contributions are ultimately eclipsed by charismatic directors and stars. He further criticizes contemporary society’s obsession with youth and the new, using abandoned dogs as metaphor for the elderly in homes and other unwanted societal “waste”. It’s not exactly subtle, but it certainly gets you to think about your own relations and aspirations, as well as your attitudes toward the smaller entities we often take for granted.

What truly surprised me about Man in the Chair were the performances. Both leads do an absolutely stellar job. While Angarano’s character initially put me off, he won me over with simple charm and honest determination. Christopher Plummer (Murder by Decree, The New World), on the other hand, delivers hands down one of the year’s best performances. Sure, it’s riddled by some schmaltzy after school moments, but he plows through them with gusto, every rant and every morose grumble given great gravity, and every stern lecturing an abrasive yet fatherly caring. Even his softer, more somber moments ring true, never once coming across as patronizing or artificial. The film also features some good turns by M. Emmet Walsh (Blood Simple, Chatahoochee) and Mitch Pileggi (who in my eyes will always remain Walter Skinner). It’s really an all around good effort on the part of the cast.

Faults aside, I quite liked Man in the Chair. Its story won me over, engaged me, and even went so far as to make me think. I give Man in the Chair a solid recommendation.

Man in the Chair opens in limited release December 7th.

About the Author

Chris Nelson has been a film fanatic since age six. A former film and English major, he is now a Software Engineer and contract Technical Writer living in the Silicon Valley.