The Man from Elysian Fields

Being in the arts is difficult. It's damn near impossible to make a living doing something in this field because everyone wants to do it, and so much is gambled onto one product. Just look at all the hopeful actors and actresses who wait tables while praying for a big break into the movie business. You either hit it big, or end up in the gutter; there's hardly any middle ground. That is the situation that allows the events of George Hickenlooper's near masterful film, "The Man from Elysian Fields" to take place.

Byron Tiller (Andy Garcia) is a writer; he's got one book under his belt, but sales were in the tank. After his next book, which he spent 7 years working on, is rejected, he needs money...fast! Help comes from a man down the hall, named Luther Fox (Mick Jagger). He runs an escort service. Reluctantly, Byron agrees, which puts him into contact with Andrea Alcott (Olivia Williams), and her husband Tobias (James Coburn), who is a renowned author. But his newfound road to success may just cause him to lose his marriage to Dena (Juliana Margulies).

The acting is top notch. Andy Garcia plays Byron in his usual low key way, but he brings a level of depth to the character that is not usually seen in many films. Mick Jagger defies the trend of music stars churning out bomb movies because they can't act. Jagger plays Fox with a cracking wit, but he also is able to give the character some extraordinary depth. Olivia Williams is terrific as Byron's beautiful client. She loves her husband dearly, but she needs a release that he can no longer give her. Fortunately for her, Tobias understands that, and is perfectly fine with her sleeping with Byron. James Coburn is terrific as Tobias. Tobias is a dying writer who has accepted his fate with wit, if not grace. But he still has his pride. TV star Juliana Margulies has made only a few ventures into film, but she fits right in as Byron's loving and devoted wife.

Although the film has flaws, they are not with the screenplay. Simply put, this is one of the best screenplays I have ever heard. Every line has immense depth and intellect, and the wit crackles. There are a number of brilliant one-liners (the best one is not shown in the trailer, thank God). However, these are not the one-liners that appear so often in a David Spade movie. Instead, these are just very clever.

The problems I had with the film is that when the film enters dark territory, such as when it shows Byron at his most desperate, it becomes unpleasant, and it ruins the spell that the movie works so hard to cast. This is partly due to George Hickenlooper, but mainly because the actors play their parts so well.

This is a must-see for any adult film-goer who appreciates films with wit, depth and rich characters.

This is a chick flick. But it's one of the most intelligent that I've ever seen. It makes one think, not merely fantasize or get all emotional.

We've seen films and documentaries about female escort services. This is the first one I know about a male service. It calls to mind the old song Just a Gigolo.

Andy Garcia plays a talented but unsuccessful writer. His novels, admired by the critics, somehow don't sell. Desperate to support his young family, he feels compelled to find some other line of work.

And then there's the sight of Mick Jagger in a three-piece suit -- almost worth the price of admission. It's a fine, nuanced performance. It seems consistent with the Jagger persona, in an odd way.

If you want quality drama devoid of the usual chick flick cliches, this is for you. That is, if it's playing in your town.

"The Man From Elysian Fields" tells of a struggling writer (Garcia) who pens his soul into the pages of a novel in a last ditch bid for success. A solid three star romanticized drama with a beautiful cast, "...Elysian Fields" delivers its "deal with the devil" story with seductive style and an engrossing ebb and flow which will entrance those who can overlook the subtle contrivances required to make the puzzle pieces fit. Good stuff for all but the most cynical drama junkies. (B+)

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.'