In The Answer Man, Jeff Daniels (Traitor) stars as the fictional author Arlen Faber, a cranky recluse who wrote a best-selling spirituality book titled Me and God twenty years earlier. His book inspired an entire generation with its insightful answers about his personal relationship with God.
Arlen Faber and His Books
Since then, Arlen has refused all the typical author duties such as book tours, public appearances, and sequels, despite the pleadings of his literary agent (Nora Dunn). Instead, Arlen lives alone and listens to self-help tapes, practices yoga, and reads books on enlightenment trying to answer his own questions about life. When each new attempt to find inner peace fails, Arlen experiences fits of rage and attempts to destroy or otherwise rid himself of the defective merchandise.
Fed up with a series of self-help books that didn’t help him, Arlen attempts to sell the books at The Book Trader, a bookstore near his home in Philadelphia. He tries various ploys to unload the books there, but meets continued resistance from Kris (Lou Taylor Pucci), the shop’s owner, and his assistant (Kat Dennings). The store lacks the money to buy any books since Kris’s recent stint at rehab. While lifting the stack of refused books, Arlen’s old back injury flares up and goes into complete spasm soon afterward.
The Answer Man Finally Answers the Big Question
Arlen’s back injury leads him to Elizabeth (Lauren Graham), a sweet chiropractor and single mother, who just opened her office in recent weeks. He literally crawls on his hands and knees to her office from his home, a gesture symbolic of his own desperation to have his prayers answered. They start a shaky romance, which gets derailed by Arlen’s ongoing crankiness and personality problems. Likewise, his bizarre relationship with the bookstore owner waxes and wanes seemingly without warning.
For 20 years, people have been hounding Arlen as they search for answers to their own questions about God. Living as a recluse has helped him avoid these difficult questions, but mostly it has helped him avoid answering one major question about himself. The characters and stories all come together in the end with a beautiful symmetry, some of it expected and some surprisingly original.
Production Values in The Answer Man
The impressive opening credits provide the needed background story with images of book jackets, newspaper clippings, and magazine covers. From there to the bittersweet ending, The Answer Man blends a great story (written by director John Hindman), bursts of fresh humor, rich sounds and textures, well-developed central characters, and strong performances from the actors.
Daniels delivers an extraordinary performance in which his misanthropic tendencies make him miserable to be around – but not so miserable that we can’t sympathize with him, laugh at his antics, and hope for his salvation. As the over-protective healer, Graham plays a loving, spiritual character reminiscent of her role in Evan Almighty. Pucci portrays the highly literate recovering alcoholic with a quiet sincerity that adds great warmth to the film. Supporting actors do a fine job all around, though little Max Antisell as Elizabeth’s son, Alex, can be difficult to understand sometimes.
- The Answer Man (formerly titled The Dream of the Romans and Arlen Faber)
- A best-selling spirituality author suffers from his own spiritual crisis.
- Director and Screenwriter: John Hindman
- Run Time: 95 minutes
- Not Rated: (profanity)
- Additional Information: The Answer Man was screened during its Southeast Premiere at the 2009 Florida Film Festival.
To watch a scene from The Answer Man, visit YouTube.
Leslie C. Halpern - Leslie C. Halpern, Romantic Films/Comedies Topic Editor, authored Passionate About Their Work, Reel Romance, & Dreams on Film.
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