Wednesday, May 5, 2010

What I Watch - The Answer Man

You probably don't remember, but last year when I wrote my list of "Summer Movies I Want to See," I mentioned an interest in The Answer Man, based on EW's description of it as "A reclusive writer suffers from lack of sassy lady friends."  It wasn't until today that I around to watching it, and it was actually pretty good, though not the movie I thought it would be.
The movie is centered around the character of Arlen Faber, who wrote a self-help book that became extremely popular 20 years ago (called "God and Me"), and ever since he has avoided the public, since he claimed that he spoke to God (hence the title).  In the course of the film, he touches the lives of (and is in turned touched by) a single-mom chiropractor (Elizabeth) and a recovering alcoholic bookstore owner (Kris).  So yeah, only one lady, and she's not even all that sassy.  Definitely pretty tsundere, though.  I guess Annie, her receptionist/babysitter counts, though she's not at all sassy, so I don't know.
Generally, I liked most of the film, though Arlen is pretty unlikable until he meets Elizabeth, which is nearly a half hour in, and even Elizabeth grated on me with her "overprotective mom" bit (though any other time, she was fine).  But other than that, I liked the characters, though the story they were in was kind of weird (I still don't really get the point of Arlen and the teacher conference, and the fallout of that with Elizabeth the next day).  I guess it was really the ending, which I won't spoil here, that keeps me from really liking the movie and puts it in the "mostly okay" category for me.  That is, I don't think I'd watch it again, but I'm glad I gave it a chance here and now.  

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