A top Hollywood talent agent finds his cushy existence threatened when he discovers that his wife is cheating on him and that his journal has been swiped by a reporter out to bring him down.
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Good movie but grossly overrated
A Masterpiece!
It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.
This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama
"Man About Town" is the biggest DTV movie of 2007. I can see why it deserved that fate.The plot: Jack Giamoro (Affleck) is a smarmy talent agent who has a successful life and a beautiful wife (Romijn). He realizes that his wife is cheating on him with his top client (Adam Goldberg). This sets him off emotionally and he starts a journal and it contains all his dark secrets. Unfortunately, it gets stolen in a robbery and he needs it back desperately.The first 40 minutes are excellent. Affleck and Romijn are great and they have some strong chemistry. Then it falls apart....fast. The journal class\robbery subplot just doesn't work. If they cut that out and focused on the infidelity it would have been a stronger movie. I think this went straight to video because of its wildly uneven tone. It's not really a comedy, it's more of a drama. The climax, while entertaining, is predictable and feels rushed. The supporting cast is good however, with John Cleese standing out as Jack's teacher.Overall, "Man About Town" is worth seeing for the first 40 minutes. If you like Affleck, you might enjoy it. Take a look at the trailer! (Does contain spoilers!)
"Man About Town", written and directed, as well as acted, by Mike Binder, shows how low some of the people that rule the film industry have stooped so low in order to establish themselves in the fantasy planet of Hollywood and the competitive world they seem to inhabit. Some famous names come to mind of people that got their start this way. It is curious how our society does not bat an eyelash to denounce their deception, their greed and the ambition that seem to be their only excuse to justify their existence.At the center of the story, one meets Jack Giamoro. He lives the kind of life that not many of us mortals get to know. He is married to a gorgeous woman, a product of that rarefied world, that has cheated on him with one of his clients. Jack, upon learning about the deceit in his own life, goes berserk. He hires the relative of a man in his office to take all her possessions out his house and his life.We get a chance to see what Jack's life was like growing up. In flashbacks one can watch how his own brother took the girl he liked away from him. His father, who is senile, lives with him, to make matters worse. Luckily, Jack has no children, which makes his separation from the wife more bearable. Jack has a problem in opening himself to others as shown in the writing classes he decides to take, but he wants to use to his own advantage; he doesn't want to share personal aspects of his writing with the professor, or his fellow students.The surprising turn of events that befall Jack make him more human, in ways one never suspected. In a way, the film is a cop out because Jack doesn't show any kind of human kindness from the way he rose to the top, or in the way he wants to leave the same privilege life he got to enjoy when he stole business secrets from his employer and enabled him to have an upper hand on the others.The problem with the film is we never really cared about these people and their insignificant troubles. Mike Binder, who created this film knows first hand how that segment of the film population acts and gives the viewer a bird's eye view of the shallowness of it all.
As an actor Mike Binder isn't much. But at a director he rides the crest of sappiness and uses only what he can borrow from the well of older movies. I've never seen a writer-director so incapable of coming up with something new. At best he's a mediocre TV director."Man about Town" is about a guy who works too much and eventually learns that he needs to spend time with his family. Woo, there's a plot. Affleck, normally decent, sleepwalks through the role. Romjin, normally hot and exciting, is listless and dull. The rest of the cast are throwaways (except Hesse, who could have had more screen time)..But it's the story - or lack thereof - that makes this a waste. There's no real explanation of anyone's motives and you never really find anything out. The story builds to various climaxes which are suddenly diffused in order to continue towards the end - as if the director was ready to resolve something but needed more time. Nasty violence happens out of the blue and out of character.The point seems to be to get Affleck to realize that he loves his wife and can forgive her adultery. Along the way comic relief is offered grade-B 1950s style: people standing in corners have doors slammed in their faces; phone conversations happen where A is talking to B but C thinks A is talking to him so; characters yell and posture about things that come into their heads separate from any storyline ......Presumably Binder had a sense of all this and so resorts to the laziest trick: it's narrated throughout. You can't follow it anyway but if you fast-forward (as you want to) you lose any possible sense of continuity that the worthless narration (Affleck reading his journal) might give.All in all, a complete waste of time: no laughs, no love, no drama, no eurekas. Nada.
i wouldn't have thought i would like it so much, just thought it would be another of those usual comedies. But i was wrong it turned out to contain a real message and not a watch just-for-fun movie. The story of Jack's life from his point of view, with his problems ,doubts and difficulties, the fact that at one point he feels so lost that he does not know anymore where his life is aiming to,his need of understanding who he is, are all things that makes us know him personally not as a successful talent agent as he is presented at the start.Through the story we see how there is so much of him that is common in the rest of the characters... but wait a second it is common to us all too! As Jack says close to the end " we are all imperfect". Which justifies the need of forgiveness. No matter the importance of the message there are quite fun moments which still remind us we are watching a comedy movie but also sad and dramatic moments.It is actually a mixture of genres; for all tastes. Action (chinatown), drama, romance, comedy and a bit of suspense. The acting was good Dr.Prinkin was the most amusing even though the most enthralling scenes were the ones with Jack and Nina.If some of you is looking for a light movie not wanting to waste his time on the usual comedies pick this movie!