I watched this movie on Netflix instant the other night and I rather enjoyed it. Jeff Daniels seems to be all into the weird indie movie roles these days, but he pulls off the messed up, but in an indie movie way, characters pretty damn well. Neurosis seems to be his forte in these Sundance darlings (which I don’t know that Paper Man actually is, but, whatever.)
Then there’s the rest of the cast in the movie as well. Ryan Reynolds as his imaginary friend (who also happens to be a superhero, Captain Excellent. Reynolds can’t get away from the tights, even in movies like this it seems) works as well. He kind of comes off as an asshole in some parts, but mostly as someone who’s at the end of his wits telling Richard (Daniels) not to make all of the bad decisions that he makes pretty much constantly. He also comes off as genuinely caring about Richard in spite of the fact that he’s been making him crazy for the last forty years.
This also leads to the character of Abby, played by the always beautiful Emma Stone (backoffshe’sMINE!) who Richard befriends in the very beginning of the movie. She plays the messed up teenager (in an indie way, naturally) with the dead sister and the guy friend who is constantly pining for her played by Keiran Culkin. There’s also Lisa Kudrow who plays Richard’s long suffering wife. Playing someone oppressively normal and well balanced when all I’ve really seen her in is Friends and the random background characters in chick flicks that always seem to be the quirky ones. Having her play the straight man (or woman in this case) in interesting, and she pulls it off.
I realize that I haven’t talked much about the movie plot yet, but that’s because it’s mostly incidental to what the movie is really about which is Richard and Abby’s relationship. Richard is an author who’s first book sold horribly and is expected to produce a second one and is having a huge case of writer’s block seemingly centered around the name of the main character of his new book. While exiling himself in a small town outside of the city to finally write the book, he meets Abby. They then start a close friendship and ultimately help each other get over their hangups, hers being her dead sister and Richard’s being his inability to figure out what he’s doing with his life.
The ending of the movie is very Hollywood given how the rest of the movie veers more towards being as indie movie as possible as the movie ends on a very high note with every one more or less ending up getting over the greatest of their issues and moving on. This ending feels a little strange given the rest of the movie, but it also works well enough to not pull you out of the movie altogether.
Overall, the film is very good and I highly recommend everyone watch it. Check it out on Netflix instant.
-WC
