"Hell is other people" Sartre said, although I suspect he never met that many self-help junkies and therefore low-balled it. Still, author Arlen Faber (Jeff Daniels), the central figure of John Hindman's Sundance-approved debut The Answer Man, co-opts the phrase when he comes in contact with his mailman (Tony Hale), a fanatic of the theology-for-dummies scribe. In his early career, Faber wrote God & Me, a fictional meta-text that explains why God does what he does. The book became a smash hit and Farber went all J.D. Salinger, shutting himself off from the world at large.

A sudden back injury brings him in contact with single mom/masseuse Elizabeth (Lauren Graham); an attempt to pawn-off his used books brings him in contact with rehabilitating drug addict and bookstore owner Kris (Lou Taylor Pucci). The plot then strolls down the beaten path with a Capraesque lightness as Arlen falls for the single mom and becomes something of an uncle-figure to Kris. Later on, he makes nice with Elizabeth's young son (Max Antisell) over cheeseburgers and ponders writing an introduction for an anniversary edition of his beloved tome.

Though most romantic comedies in the last few decades have borrowed, copied, or just outright plagiarized sections of the Capra/Wilder/Lubitsch canons with the occasional kick of modernity, The Answer Man feels particularly unoriginal on purpose. The films that make up Man's DNA are too countless to name but with the exception of its ending, which borrows from the James Frey playbook, nothing about the film feels original. Even the look of the film, shot by Oliver Bokelberg (Dark Matter, The Visitor), seems to have been jacked from an L.L. Bean catalog.

It weighs heavy on the roster of admirable performers. Heavy on the curse words, Arlen sure acts like a pain in the ass but there's a hesitation to Jeff Daniels' performance that acts like a comfort blanket. There is never a point in the film where it isn't perfectly clear that Arlen and Elizabeth will end up together and that everyone will be happy by the rolling of the credits. Pucci's immense promise coming off of Mike Mills' Thumbsucker is now long past its expiration date and here, lashed to a bevy of recovery clichés, he makes his laziest turn. I'd mention Olivia Thirlby, as Elizabeth's assistant, and Kat Dennings, as Kris' one employee, but neither offers more than a prolonged cameo.

For Arlen, as evidenced by his cabinet of monster-movie figurines, coming out of one's shell means possibly shutting the doors for good if all does not go well. What Hindman and Daniels fail to convey is the internal melee of Faber's solitude being confronted by Elizabeth and her fitfully quixotic son. There's a breezy touch to Hindman's direction but this weightless mood feels unearned. The director, who is also responsible for the screenplay, never invests in the dark shadings given to his characters -- Lauren's lazy ex, Kris' alcoholic father, Arlen's dead father. Without these juxtapositions, Hindman appears more indecisive than pointedly unencumbered, and The Answer Man becomes about as memorable as the proverbial stock picture that came with the frame.

Aka Arlen Faber.



Burger time.