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How far would you go to keep a roof over your family's head and food on their plates? Would you sell a kidney? Would you work at McDonald's? How about taking experimental medication, or having sex for money? Some of us might resort to extreme measures (just admit it already, Scott Peterson), but not Byron Tiller, our protagonist in the predictable yet entertaining neo-noir-drama-slash-quasi-tragedy, The Man From Elysian Fields.
Byron (Andy Garcia, Ocean's Eleven) is a former advertising executive who gave up that line of work to become an author. His first book, which took seven years to write, was a hit with the critics but failed to catch on with the public, as evidenced by Fields' first scene depicting Byron's horror at seeing Hitler's Child languishing in the remainder bin at a LA bookstore. Byron has plenty of things to be thankful for, however: He has a hot wife named Dena (Julianna Margulies, Evelyn), a cute little kid, and a second novel he's sure will knock the socks off the literary world.
But Byron's world comes crashing down around him when every publisher he approaches gives him the bum's rush. Dead broke and completely miserable, Byron lies to Dena to make her think his latest work has been purchased. This happens right around the same time he befriends a distinguished-looking gentleman named Luther Fox (Mick Jagger), who has space on the same floor as Byron in the Barton Fink-y building they both call office (why a guy this worried about money insists on having a separate place of business is something Fields never explains).
Fox, we learn, is the owner of the titular business Elysian Fields, which is named after that mythological paradise found in the afterlife. It's a fitting name, since Fox's business is male prostitution. Byron eventually swallows his pride and succumbs to Fox's intriguing proposition, and - wouldn't you know it - his first Jane turns out to be a looker (Olivia Williams, Born Romantic) with a dying husband who has won three Pulitzer Prizes (James Coburn doing Hemingway with diabetes). If you've seen more than five movies in your life, you can pretty much figure out how the second and third acts play out in Fields.
As flawed and foreseeable as Fields' conclusion is (how the heck can a writer not see it coming, by the way?), there are still quite a few things to like about the film. Most importantly, it gives us a much better final impression of the late Coburn than Snow Dogs did, though it's still pretty heartbreaking to watch him playing a dying man when you know he's already gone (a la Jason Robards in Magnolia). The wonderfully cast Jagger, who also narrates Fields, is nearly a revelation as a career gigolo who has fallen for a Jane (Anjelica Huston, Blood Work) - he's able to act circles around other musicians-turned-wannabe-movie-stars. But best of all is Garcia, who perfectly portrays the desperation of a very insecure man.
1:45 - R for language and sexual content
========== X-RAMR-ID: 34226 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 846092 X-RT-TitleID: 1117225 X-RT-SourceID: 595 X-RT-AuthorID: 1146 X-RT-RatingText: 6/10
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