The Details

Tobey Maguire is a pitch perfect anti-hero in this bizarre, absurd, dark movie about love and raccoons. The movie plays like a demented fairy tale, replete with butterflies, rainbows and cross-bows. The audience I saw it with was in stitches. But this isn't really a comedy. I wouldn't even call it a black comedy. I'd say the movie is more of a magical absurd comedy, if that is even a genre. It plays like a fever dream, swinging wildly between realism and camp. I was surprised about 100 times during the watching of this film, and to tell much more about it would just spoil the fun of it for you. Suffice to say, you will not get what you're expecting. If you want something normal, this isn't it... I will warn that sometimes the movie makes your stomach turn, as you're forced to live in the shoes of a morally suspect character... but I think that was the point. There are no good or bad people in this movie. There are only morally gray people, who behave like raccoons... hungry, horny, needy and desperately seeking worms... I was lucky enough to see it in a recent festival screening. I think it will be really interesting to see how general audiences respond....

In King County, Washington, Dr. Jeff Lang (Tobey Maguire) has been married for ten years with Nealy Lang (Elizabeth Banks) and they have a little boy. Their best friends are Rebecca Mazzoni (Kerry Washington), who has studied with Jeff in the medical school, and her husband Peter Mazzoni (Ray Liotta). Jeff decides to sod his backyard, but the grass comes with worms underneath and raccoons destroy his sod during the night. Jeff wants also build another room in the house for his planned second son, but the City Hall blocks the project. Jeff decides to build the room without the approval and he gives a beautiful plant for his next door neighbor, the unstable Lila (Laura Linney) that lives with her cat Matthew, expecting that she does not denounce his construction work to the authorities. Jeff also likes to play basketball with his friend Lincoln (Dennis Haysbert), who has kidney problem and needs hemodialysis.

However, the raccoons disturb Jeff and Nealy has not had sex with him for six months. Jeff decides to poison the raccoon and he meets Rebecca to drink and relief his bitterness about his dried up of sex marriage and they end the day having sex in Rebecca's home. Jeff finds a better work for Lincoln as a coach at a school and he learns that his friend will die soon. Jeff gets close to a breakdown when Peter discovers that his wife betrayed him with Jeff; Matthew is accidentally poisoned by Jeff and Lila seduces him and they have sex. Jeff decides to donate one kidney to save the life of his friend, but when he is recovering from the surgery, he learns that Lila is pregnant and he comments his life with Lincoln. Will Jeff find redemption in his journey to hell?

"The Details" is a love or hate movie, with dark humor, drama and amoral story. Jeff Lang is a family man and doctor that begins his descent to hell when raccoons destroy his expensive sod. The turmoil of his life is funny since the bad things sequentially happen to Jeff. The scene when Lila tells to Jeff that she is pregnant is hilarious. Tobey Maguire is a great actor but his baby face does not fit well to his role. But Laura Linney "steals" the movie with a top-notch performance. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Dejavu... that's the word that comes to my mind when I finished this movie... this movie reminded me a great deal of 'American Beauty' due to its technique and dramatization... American Beauty has a way different story, but both of those movies get to you in a similar manner... how one event of least importance can turn your whole world up-side-down in time to comes, the details tells you about that very convincingly...

The acting has been tremendous... Other than the spiderman series I have known Tobey Mcguire from the cider house rules, in which his acting was commendable... but the details has a different character for him to tackle and he did it quite well... Laura Linney and Elizabeth Banks are veterans and I do not recall them throwing away their character every before... but the best thing about this movie is the screenplay... hats off to the writer who knows how to whirl the story through the time streams gently... every act was calculated and didn't feel like unnecessary or miscalculated at all...

My recommendations... do see it!

The Details begins with a pleasant enough introduction and promises of a humorously dark spin on suburbia . With a stellar cast that offers up top notch performances the movie moves along with a theme-park roller-coaster like flow between comedy and tragedy. Certainly humorous and at times truthful, the movie has a Jekyll & Hyde flow that creates a whole lesser then its pieces.

A seemingly perfect couple, Jeff the Doctor (Tobey Maguire) and the beautiful Nealy (Elizabeth Banks) are in a rough patch in their stale marriage. Two ill advised home improvement ventures lead Jeff to a run in with some pesky raccoons and a even more pesky encounter with a crazy cat lady neighbor(Laura Linney). Doctor Jeff's life begins to unravel as he tries to navigate his way through bribery, blackmail and his urge to feel some sort of spark that is missing from his marriage. A woeful tale of infidelity gone bad unfolds that leads the Doc down a slippery slope. He tries to cure his woes with a few doses of philanthropy, but no good deed goes unpunished, its the details that always gets you in the end.

The performances by the cast are top notch, Toby Maguire as Dr. Jeff gives a complex performance that is humorous, emotional and sympathetic. Elizabeth Banks has flashes of brilliance, the last 10 minutes give glimpses of what more her character could have offered had the filmmakers seen the opportunity. Lauara Linney is comic genius in a turn that is right up there with her best. Dennis Haysbert and Ray Liotta give very pure performances. This movie couldn't have asked for better side players which only makes it more disappointing that the filmmakers didn't create a better landscape.

The Details has brilliant moments of humor, but its see-saw approach between gags and edge of darkness stuff keep it in a gray area which can only be successful in the most polished of hands (e.g. American Beauty). Ironically its in the details, where the Details fails. There are numerous moments in the film where just a few tweaks could have kept it from flying off the tracks. The lasting impression is an attempt at modern story telling that wastes excellent performances by not keeping a tighter grip on the story.

I expect some buzz about the film after its initial premiere. Tobey Maguire gives a fabulous performance and gives all that he could, however once this sort of film is removed from the gloomy shadows of the downer films that typically makes up most of Sundance it probably won't fair very well. Shame really, this could have been a more significant film.

This film tells how the seemingly perfect middle class life of a doctor falls apart, after the emergence of raccoons in his garden.

After reading the plot summary, I still did not have a clue what "The Details" was about. After watching it, I can safely say that it is a engaging drama about the unfortunate decay of a suburban middle class family. The plot is very engaging, as we are confronted with a lot of moral dilemmas that are very real and close to viewers. I feel very sorry for Laura Linney's character, even though she is a bit eccentric. The only complain I have is the casting of Tobey McGuire, he is just too baby-face for me to believe he is an accomplished doctor.

It is a pity that "The Details" has a title, that is neither informative nor enticing.