Movie Reviews

Well, it was certainly an interesting experience going to see this in the theatre. This was shown as part of Harris Road Cinemas' "Wednesday Night Art Film" series, and I went because the rest of the films they've shown have been really good. The unusual thing this time was that I knew absolutely nothing about this movie. Seriously... nothing at all (I wasn't even sure if it was a documentary, or a drama, or a comedy, etc.).

It's too bad the movie was kind of lame. It's one of those films that kinda looks 'artsy' because it throws in a few clever camera shots and some metaphors and symbols and such, as well as a 'heartfelt' voice-over at the begin and end of the film. However, metaphors and symbols do not an art film make (especially when they're horribly -- almost laughably -- overwrought). And the voice-over was pretty annoying.

The story is about a down-on-his luck writer named Byron Tiller (Andy Garcia), who is offered a "temporary" job at Elysian Fields, a male escort agency for wealthy women run by a strange guy named Luther Fox (played by none other than Mick Jagger). Byron's first client happens to be the wife of a famous writer named Tobias Alcott (James Coburn), who actually allows his wife to hire escorts because, due to his old age, he is no longer able to 'please' her. Alcott is finishing up what will likely be his last novel, but it's not going too well. What luck, then, that his wife happens to be enjoying the company of an escort who's also a writer! Yes, the two men get together and start revising the novel, while also developing a weird sort of friendship. That's the basics of the story, but I suppose I shouldn't give away too much more than that. I will say that the plot takes a really annoying drastic turn about two-thirds of the way through, and I felt as annoyed by it as the characters in the film seemed to have.

There are a few good things in The Man From Elysian Fields. It has the occasional laugh, and Mick Jagger is really quite a nice actor. But the bad outweighs the good here, and this was a bit of an unfortunate hiccup in the otherwise great stretch of films that have been playing in Harris Road Cinemas' Art Film series.