El Hombre De Los Placeres

The Man From Elysian Fields is a film with not one bad performance, a number of really good ones, and a story that keeps it and eye-gluer, in a sense. Andy Garcia is the writer, Byron, struggling to sell a second novel after a first that is selling almost nothing after seven years. Enter Fox (Mick Jagger) who runs an escort service for women, and offers Byron to be the "fulfiller" of married women. Byron wants to quit, until one night he meets the wife of Tobias Alcott (James Colburn), a famous, aging writer. Every character is convincing, even Jagger, who has strayed away from acting roles in general since the flop Freejack, and here takes a tailor made role and gives off a fascinating presence, and Colburn makes his hard bitten writer as an occasional comic relief. The surroundings of Pasadena adds to the allure, and it's delightful in it's sweep, under the guise of honest fiction. An independent sleeper. Grade: A

No one ever accused director George Hickenlooper of being too upbeat. His films share a pessimistic world-view and a love for flawed antiheroes that has been out of vogue in mainstream Hollywood since the 1970's. While The Man from Elysian Fields is his first film as director that he didn't write or co-write, it shares the same sensibilities of his most personal films; namely a struggling artist's middle American values being a casualty of life in contemporary Los Angeles.

Andy Garcia is said artist, Byron Tiller. After his first novel received rave reviews but little sales, Byron is unable to get his second novel published. He can't afford to support his family, and after suffering a series of indignities to try and make ends meet, he strikes a Faustian bargain with a gentlemen pimp, Luther Fox (Mick Jagger) the owner and operator of Elysian Fields escort service. Tiller uneasily accepts his new role as a male escort, and low and behold his first client, Andrea Alcott (Olivia Williams of Rushmore), is the wife of a dying Pulitzer Prize winning novelist who needs help writing one last book before he dies.

From this rather novel premise (one of Garcia's first lines is 'it's a premise, it's allowed to be ridiculous'), the plot proceeds much as you would expect it to. But, hey, in tragedy, there aren't many places to go but down. What makes Elysian Fields worth watching are the performances. The late James Coburn is excellent as the crotchety old writer, Tobias Alcott. His ruminations on death are made all the more poignant by the fact that this was one of his final performances. Top billed Jagger is wonderfully understated as Fox, and Julianna Margulies does a good job of breathing life into the somewhat thankless role of Mrs. Tiller, the stock movie wife who is basically there to constantly tell her workaholic husband that she wishes he were home more.

What's really significant about Elysian Fields is the way that Garcia, Hickenlooper and screenwriter Phillip Jayson Lasker have crafted the character of Byron Tiller. The indignities that Tiller suffers at the start of the film (at the hands of the publisher who rejects his book, his father-in-law, who refuses to loan him any money and the former boss who refuses to hire him back) could have been a set up for the 'emasculated man re-masculated' plot. This popular revenge fantasy in which the white collar, white male rages against the machine (Fight Club, American Beauty, Office Space) is rendered improbable when the hero is turning tricks. This is the emasculated man, further emasculated. Garcia goes for broke, giving a brave performance as the not always likable Tiller. When he makes a last ditch effort to assert his manhood against the deceptive Mrs. Alcott, she coyly rebuffs his ranting and raving and his castration is complete. Jagger, as Fox says it best when he reminds Tiller 'don't forget that they're paying you, not as a writer, but as a whore. I guarantee, they haven't forgotten.'

"The Man from Elysian Fields" is a writer's film filled with sensuality, failure, loss, hope, infidelity, intrigue and deception with a touch of film noir. Byron Tiller (Andy Garcia) plays the starving artist with an early success that brought neither fortune nor lasting notoriety who is ready to compromise his ideals for grocery money. Luther Fox (Mick Jagger) has set up a deceptively unobtrusive escort service across the hall. Luther draws Byron into a discussion about life and winds up with a recruit for his high-class service. But writers need broad experience and this opportunity is too tempting for Tilly to pass up. He's entirely too reluctant which makes him ripe for the picking.

And he's just the candidate for the wife of a prominent author. This multiple Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, Tobias Alcott played by James Coburn, is losing his muse and his health, but his powers of deception are as sharp as ever. His wife, played by the icy Olivia Williams, draws Tilly into the family with several offers he can't refuse. Andy Garcia nails the struggling writer's persona begging our sympathy while he spirals down the hierarchy of alternatives to keep the wolf from the door. Mick Jagger is perfect for the part of the Faustian lizard who's tiring of the game he's mastered. The role of the escort, his office facade and ultimately his own personal relationship crumbles under the weight of deception.

Tilly is seduced by the temptations of a shrewd couple (the Alcott's) whose too-good-to-be-true offer leaves him with a great story and perhaps a Pulitzer of his own. But he's got to write it. There's always a catch.

The Hollywood ending, so clearly the decision of a focus group isn't a worthy conclusion to this story. This is another film with talented actors, superior cinematography and an intriguing story but lacking direction. Recent films like "Posession" come to mind. The product is compromised when the director lacks the courage to bring the film to a meaningful - in this case a disturbing - conclusion rather than one that's "satisfying," Tilly's editor spoke to this issue when he rejected his second novel saying that the reader doesn't want to think microcosm when she's sitting on the bus... In trying to please the mainstream, reach a wider audience and improve the box office, we lose opportunities to excel.

So what else is new in Hollywood?

The road to hell is always paved with good intentions. It is the axiom pitfall that catches so many; including Andy Garcia's character, Byron Tiller, in `The Man from Elesian Fields'. Having thrown years into a failed novel, Byron grows increasingly desperate to make ends meet for his family and find success. Compromising himself for what he needs, he finds an easy answer in the employ of Elesian Fields, a male escort service operated by Luther Fox (Mik Jagger). It is a classically executed set-up, but because the script has so much to say before the final fade out, it staggers like a buss boy who has picked up too many dishes from too many tables.

After the proper cajoling and encouraging, Luther sets Byron up on his first assignment with the beautiful wife of a renowned multi-Pulitzer writer. Byron doesn't go easily into this abyss. He won't escort Andrea (Olivia Williams) beyond her limo door after an opera the first night and is greatly relieved to return home to his wife Dena (Juliana Margulies). The second date, however, progresses until the date and escort have their lovemaking interrupted by a visit from Andrea's elderly and approving husband, Tobias (James Coburn). Tobias extends an invitation for Byron to work with him on revising his last book. Byron soon finds himself leading the dizzying life of working for Luther, Andrea and Tobias while never letting Dena know about his escort duties with Andrea.

The first hour of the film is tightly written and gracefully proceeds with the steady and beautiful cinematography of Kramer Morgenthau. After the writers start exchanging ideas, the pace of the film picks up considerably. Conversation becomes swept aside in montages and assumptions. Even the music, subtle and appropriate in the first half draws unnecessary attention in the second half. The situation is familiar. Betrayed couples are as old as time. Struggling writers are found throughout cinema. The thing that separates them is the individual characters and interaction. Those and the heartfelt dialog get lost in bringing the story to where it is expected to end to make the author's statement.

Far from poor, but never really convincing, `Elesian Fields' is best noted for the acting it harbors. James Coburn plays a dying artist with dignity and is smart enough to let his poise crumble from time to time. Mik Jagger is wonderfully understated as the dispenser of temptation and his moments of disappointment with Anjelica Huston round out an award-worthy performance. Andy Garcia believably balances an quiet man whose temper gets the best of him now and again. Only Juliana Margulies is underused. It's unfortunate that so much talent could not overcome the other more intrinsic weaknesses.

Despite the lukewarm reception by the local and national media for this film, I found myself enjoying this rehash of Faust, tremendously. It's a very old theme, but in here it is told very stylishly and with a lot of panache by director George Hickenlooper based on the screenplay written by Phillip Jayson Lasker.

At the outset, I must say that I'm not the greatest fan of Andy Garcia, but I have to confess that in this film he does probably his best work, despite of other praised roles in the past. His Byron Tiller is a loser. We sense it the moment we see him in Rizzoli trying to recommend his book to an indecisive customer.

His curiosity trying to find out what his office neighbor, Luther Fox, is up to, proves to be his eventual downfall. At home life seems very normal with Dena, his wife, and son. Being broke makes him accept an offer he should have turned down from the very beginning.

The encounter with the Allcotts, Tobias, a best selling author at the end of his life, and Andrea, his wife will be fatal. Are we to believe this was a chance encounter, or was it planned before hand?

Ultimately the viewer will have to arrive to his own conclusions.

All the acting is first rate. Andy Garcia is very effective. So is the rest of the cast, but Mick Jagger is superb portraying this lizard kind of a man who deals with very special situations and needs. Also notable, Olivia Williams, as the ice queen that doesn't even take off her undergarments for a tumble in the hay. James Coburn is a sly fox who knows what he's doing from the very beginning. Julianna Margulies is the only one that has very little to do as the suffering wife.

The film has a glossy and sophisticated look. Viewing it will be satisfying because basically it's a good story well paced and acted.