Some reviews seem to have pegged this as a mere indie romp, the quirky, gushy type that hasn't felt novel since the mid-00s. That tag doesn't quite do Paper Man justice. Sure, the surface style is a bit derivative. We've seen older men forging an inappropriate relationship with a high school girl before (Juno, American Beauty), and we've seen plenty of cutesy indie films about 20-something would-be-artistes struggling to grow up and get a real job (Flakes, for one). But this movie is quite a bit more deranged than all that. These characters aren't merely eccentric, their idiosyncrasies hover well past the line into downright pathology.
First we have our protagonist. Not a disillusioned 20-something hipster, he's a man well into middle age who has no real job, no social skills and still clings to a (sometimes abusive) imaginary friend. Somehow this man with no prospects and no skills is married to a successful surgeon who isolates her maladjusted, delusional, slacker husband up in a rural cabin believing that -- somehow -- leaving him to his own devices and letting him run amok in solitude will help to repair his crippling mental state. Finally we come to Abby, a teenage girl so desperate for companionship that she tolerates a neglectful slob of a boyfriend, a deranged, obsessive stalker who follows her wherever she goes, and a middle-aged married man who lures her to his empty house under the guise of a babysitting job. Her response to being set-up by this pervert? She makes him soup. If her parents exist, they don't much concern themselves with her, and she has no other acquaintances.
This is an intriguing character study with some decent heart to be found. It's fascinating to explore these broken individuals and the movie's definitely worth a watch. Unfortunately, the courage with which these characters were created is not matched by the movie's highly formulaic ending, which largely glosses over their more serious instabilities. However, with so many otherwise solid indie projects these days ending abruptly with far too little closure (Not Fade Away, Palo Alto), I'm willing to accept a little undue schmaltz from Paper Man.
The cast also garners mentioning. With Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Lisa Kudrow and Jeff Daniels, they couldn't have put together a better ensemble for this film. The performances are entertaining enough just on their own merits.
First we have our protagonist. Not a disillusioned 20-something hipster, he's a man well into middle age who has no real job, no social skills and still clings to a (sometimes abusive) imaginary friend. Somehow this man with no prospects and no skills is married to a successful surgeon who isolates her maladjusted, delusional, slacker husband up in a rural cabin believing that -- somehow -- leaving him to his own devices and letting him run amok in solitude will help to repair his crippling mental state. Finally we come to Abby, a teenage girl so desperate for companionship that she tolerates a neglectful slob of a boyfriend, a deranged, obsessive stalker who follows her wherever she goes, and a middle-aged married man who lures her to his empty house under the guise of a babysitting job. Her response to being set-up by this pervert? She makes him soup. If her parents exist, they don't much concern themselves with her, and she has no other acquaintances.
This is an intriguing character study with some decent heart to be found. It's fascinating to explore these broken individuals and the movie's definitely worth a watch. Unfortunately, the courage with which these characters were created is not matched by the movie's highly formulaic ending, which largely glosses over their more serious instabilities. However, with so many otherwise solid indie projects these days ending abruptly with far too little closure (Not Fade Away, Palo Alto), I'm willing to accept a little undue schmaltz from Paper Man.
The cast also garners mentioning. With Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Lisa Kudrow and Jeff Daniels, they couldn't have put together a better ensemble for this film. The performances are entertaining enough just on their own merits.
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