adi_2002
A writer with no inspiration and no friends starts a friendly relationship with a local girl. He asks her if she could come to his house and be a babysitter but it seems there is no baby to look out for. Although her charges are expensive the writer is willing to pay her for the provided services. Once in a while her wife passes by and misunderstands her relation with the young girl and soon the two begins to argue. So the movie is humble, the type that doesn't reach anywhere. Lack of variety in locations, characters or the story witch don't develop make it a little boring at a time. Also the mains character imaginary superhero friend removes the film seriousness, I mean this can happen only if you are a child but seeing him on his kid bike and spending so much time among teens does not fall far from the truth. Final words it's watchable for those who don't mind to watch the same scenario all over again and they do not have any new expectations from it.
nwsts
This film barely elevates itself out of the dust bin that it crawled out of. Whether Jeff Daniels' horrible, awkward and unfunny groping of Emma Stone or his pushing 10th graders into alcoholic stupors, the disgusting aspects of this film are tough to rise above. The horrible dialog - stilted and sparse - is anything but funny and the comedic moments are completely squandered. What I find most flabbergasting is the complete lack of anything resembling plot closure or character's personal progress at the end of the movie. It just trails off into some kind of oblivion which is exactly where this movie belongs: oblivion. Having said all that, I will justify my 3 star rating by saying that the two leads prove they are worthy of being considered among the best of the best in Hollywood. Honorable mention goes to Lisa Kudrow who provides a yeoman's performance as an unlikable but decent wife.
TxMike
I found this one on Netflix streaming movies. A Sundance product, it is very quirky, in a way that I really enjoy. I like this movie a lot.Lisa Kudrow is Claire Dunn, a doctor, and Jeff Daniels is her husband, Richard Dunn, a writer. With one book out of the way, he is hopelessly stuck. So he moves to a little rustic house near the ocean in Montauk, to be inspired to write a novel with an extinct bird, last seen on Long Island, as the subject. Claire comes to visit him periodically and she, with a lucrative career as a vascular surgeon, expects Richard to be productive, to get on with writing his book.But Richard has never completely grown up. He has an imaginary friend, Ryan Reynolds as Captain Excellent, with short bleached blond hair and always wearing his blue and red suit, not unlike how Superman appears. His imaginary friend is alternately a blessing and a nuisance. But he still can't get started writing. "I don't know what to do with my hands."Local high school girl Emma Stone as Abby gets Richard's attention. Awkwardly he asks her if she can babysit, even though he has no children. She shows up, isn't too shocked that there is no child to sit, she says "I have some homework I need to do." But as he goes away for 3 hours, doing nothing in particular, she gathers whatever ingredients and vegetables she can find in his place and makes a pot of soup. He likes the soup, but when she tells him her babysitting fee is $12 per hour, he has just bought a $36 dollar pot of soup. This starts the unfolding of the story which basically is Richard and Abby helping each other get over some issues, and get on with their lives. They become friends, all innocent, but they form a bond that neither of them had experienced before.Good movie. SPOILERS: The other key character is Abby's friend, Kieran Culkin as Christopher. He almost seems to be stalking her, she doesn't seem bothered by his presence. Near the end Christopher and Captain Excellent and standing next to each other, and communicate with each other. Christopher is Abby's imaginary friend, since the time when Abby and her twin sister were swimming in the ocean, Abby came back to shore, her twin drowned. As the story is wrapping up Richard sends Captain Excellent away, he doesn't need him anymore, and Abby comes back to her room to find Christoper dead, hanging from her ceiling, symbolic that she didn't need him anymore.
osterhoutj_2
I remember seeing a preview for this movie once a while back and thought it looked interesting, but then I never heard about it again. While roaming through Netflix one night I came across it in my queue and decided to check it out and very glad that I did.Paper Man is a very charming dramedy with excellent performances by Jeff Daniels and Emma Stone who form a unique friendship that fills the opposite voids each character has in their lives. The type of friendship they form could have easily been ruined by coming off too romantic, but both Daniels and Stone teeter the line of awkward and endearing perfectly to keep the dramatic aspects in a comedic tone.Then there's Captain Excellent, the imaginary friend to Richard Dunn (Jeff Daniels) played by Ryan Reynolds. Captain Excellent is the sarcastic "voice of reason" to Dunn that leads to many comical exchanges between the two. The sarcastic tone of the character plays well into Ryan Reynolds' wheelhouse and, because of that, I really enjoyed Reynolds in this roll. I thought both he and Daniels were great playing off each other.All in all, this is a very solid flick that I would definitely recommend you check out.
