Richard has hit a wall. This proverbial expression is no understatement, in fact, he can't seem to get past even the first sentence of his second novel, and his wife, Claire (Lisa Kudrow) - though we don't see it on screen - might just be celebrating far away from the Long Island cabin she drops him off in in the opening moments of writer-director team Michele and Kieran Mulroney's "Paper Man". For once, she won't have to supervise her husband, a baby trapped in a man's body. From there, Richard the floundering writer sets out, with inner chiming from his imaginary superhero alter-ego Captain Excellent (Ryan Reynolds), to draw inspiration from his bleak surroundings.
What - or rather, whom - he finds to feed this craving of perception, though is a girl named Abby (Emma Stone), and after a curious following of her around the back alleys of town on his bicycle, the girl agrees instantaneously to act as Richard's baby sitter. I know, I know, thematically this works, since Richard is the guy who needs babysitting in the first place. It's a metaphor, right? But when you're a girl who's literally just met a significantly older man out at random on the street, the tone might suggest something quite different. And when Richard later reveals to her after she shows up that there's in fact no baby to watch, well, that's probably your cue to swiftly exit the building. Supposing myself or any sensible girl growing up in the post-modern 9/11 age of "To Catch A Predator" or "Forensic Files" was Abby, Richard might not exactly be the kind of man you can bet on. But Abby stays. There's something so irresistibly mystifying about Richard, the story suggests. Yet anything more mystifying than Abby's naivete you'll be hard-pressed to find. "Paper Man" has no intentions of being a creepy slasher film, but with encounters like this, it sure sets us up for one.
Daniels, Emma Stone, Lisa Kudrow and the jocular Ryan Reynolds all put in good work here, in fact Stone shows real depth as Abby, the disillusioned and troubled teenager. She's convincing as the kind of girl whose wit and judiciousness puts her well beyond her years. But it's that fact that partially leaves us stupefied when she willingly puts herself at the romantic disposal of a complete and utter half-baked sleaze louse like that of Abby's boyfriend, Bryce. Stone is not opposite the frenzied comic timing of Jonah Hill or even the charm of Teddy Geiger that makes her character acting flow with a natural ease. Hunter Parrish plays Bryce with a stinking stupidity (Think of the obnoxious intrusiveness of one of the droogs from "A Clockwork Orange" who's too lazy to commit any violence), and while it's maybe the source of Abby's melancholy that tries to make, refraining from questioning her intellect can become a bit tiresome. When someone as charming, witty and vivacious as this is at the mercy of the sexual prowess of a buffoon, her independent spirit you're instructed to love sadly dissipates. As for the scenes with Reynolds, his superhero can be lively, perceptive and hilariously eccentric, if only he were simply given enough screen-time and were permitted to be released from the shackles of this narrative.
What the film aims to be, I think, is a dry, witty and intimate glimpse into the lives and souls of these misunderstood everyday people, but simply cannot connect; exemplified in this bit of dialogue: "If only everything in the world could be covered in butter", Richard remarks. "What a buttery world". What? We lean in from one interaction to the next, with the directors under the impression that with enough gestures, delivered either wryly or with yearning lament, that we will emerge with a wholly developed protagonist. Unfortunately it is lines that this that make it no wonder why Richard is doomed, indeed to remain so frustrated and misunderstood.
The problem is, writer-directors Michele and Kieran Mulroney don't seem to know these characters all that well, or perhaps that the film is too lazy to identify them, in spite of the statements the husband-and-wife filmmaker team may know they want to make. "Paper Man" has that fatal air of pretension, the kind that expects you almost instantly to understand each of its motivations and ideas while forgetting to develop them first. If Abby yearns for someone deeper than her spineless partner, I found myself asking, what is the purpose of her imaginary friend Christopher (Keiran Culkin, brother of Macaulay and Rory)? Or is he an extension of her unexamined feelings that Richard's literary work and mind can allow her to freely explore?
Such ideas certainly resonate with the enigmas of an estranged, struggling writer bashing his head repeatedly with frustration, and if that were the case, the film would be inspirational. Richard and Abby's unresolved problems in life seek to be thrashed out by Captain Excellent and Christopher, but instead they're mocked and bemoaned. This melancholy dominates "Paper Man", so much so that the relationships it projects feel empty, soldered together with nothing but moping and platonic commiserating.
Richard and Abby's paths through struggle both rely on the strength of their imaginations, with characters of their dreamed up subconscious functioning as a source of perseverance in times of crisis. We've seen this story before in a grittier, darker film like "Precious: Based On The Novel 'Push' by Sapphire", and it continues to be explored through taut psychological suspense like this year's "Shutter Island". Those films are horses of a different color, I'm aware, with vastly different ambitions, but those films nevertheless are identical in their choice of narrative, and where those films use an inspired premise as their catalysts in driving the narrative, "Paper Man" left me befuddled in the over-trusting of its performances to translate its undercooked moot points. While it's easy to acknowledge this is poised for good material, "Paper Man"'s watery script leaves us in a haze of unanswered questions, questions far more alluring than the stock phrase resolution it decides to crawl into.
As Richard prepares to write, Claire gives him some cautionary wisdom: "Don't fixate". On its subjects, "Paper Man" probably should have fixated a little more.
★★☆☆☆ (2/5)
Cast & Credits
Richard Dunne: Jeff Daniels
Abby: Emma Stone
Captain Excellent: Ryan Reynolds
Claire Dunne: Lisa Kudrow
Bryce: Hunter Parrish
Christopher: Kieran Culkin
Artfire Films presents a film directed by Michele and Kieran Mulroney. Produced by Richard Gladstein, Guymon Casady, Art Spigel and Ara Katz. Running Time: 111 Minutes. Rated R (For Language and a Scene of Sexuality).
You can find this review, its supplemental materials, as well as other extensive film coverage at EInsiders.com.
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