Harvard Man Review
Harvard Man purports to be a realistic film about modern college life. Instead, it's a wacky combination of B-movie tropes, improbable plot twists, and graphic sex. Actors seem to have been cast for their faces and bodies more than for their thespian talents or suitability for the roles they play. Adrian_Grenier, in the title role, has the dark good looks the role calls for, but he's a bit stiff. Sarah_Michelle_Gellar (TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer) plays a spoiled and unscrupulous mobster's daughter. She's an engaging actress, but the ridiculous machinations of the plot and the absurd dialogue leave her struggling. Raspy-voiced Joey_Lauren_Adams fares slightly better, surprisingly, as a threesome-loving Harvard philosophy professor. Her lectures on Heidegger and Kierkegaard are delivered convincingly enough, and it helps that Toback intercuts them with the aforementioned graphic sex scenes. The film jumps back and forth in time frequently, and with little recognizable purpose. The overly familiar plot, involving Grenier's decision to fix a basketball game to get his parents money to repair their home, is actually believable enough to carry the audience along until an unlikely FBI operation comes into play. At one point, Grenier, in the midst of an acid trip, escapes the FBI by leaping out the second floor window of the interrogation room. This doesn't quite ring true, but then again, this particular breed of FBI agent only exists in bad movies. Harvard Man is awful in a fun way for most of its running time, but the climactic dramatization of Grenier's acid trip, with its seemingly endless repetition of unpleasant sights and sounds, will likely leave audiences wishing the film would just end. James_Toback is a self-indulgent filmmaker that viewers either love or hate, and Harvard Man fits in neatly with his oeuvre. Josh Ralske, Rovi
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