It’s the story of a writer who’s dropped off in a small town to finish his second novel – but he’s blocked. Part of the problem is that he’s never really grown up and is incredibly insecure – to the point of still having an imaginary friend. And what kind of imaginary friend do you have when you’re incredibly insecure and immature? A superhero!
Richard Dunn [Daniels] is dropped off in a small New England town to finish his second novel. His surgeon wife [Lisa Kudrow] takes barely enough time to make sure the cottage they’ve rented is not a hovel before she’s off – back to big city. In response to her farewell, his response is, ‘Save lives!’ all the while, Captain Excellent [Ryan Reynolds] stands nearby, looking on with a mix of love and frustration. Captain Excellent is Richard’s best/only/imaginary friend, but even he’s thinking it’s time for Richard to move on.
Riding a banana bike that’s way too small for him, Richard cycles into town – where he meets Abby [Emma Stone]. If this were a romantic comedy, we’d say they ‘meet cute,’ but this isn’t, we won’t. Abby is a teen who looks and feels like an old soul – or perhaps a prematurely world weary soul. For some reason, Richard feels something toward her – a connection, of sorts – and hires her to babysit.
We see Abby and her best friend Christopher [Kieran Culkin] talk, and meet the obnoxious guys she hangs out with – including her sort of boyfriend, a genuine lout named Bryce [Hunter Parrish]. We [and she] know that she could do better, even in such a small town.
When she discovers that Richard doesn’t have a baby, her response is, ‘Then this’ll be easy’ – or words to that effect. When Richard wanders off for a few hours, even she can figure that he isn’t looking for some Lolita-like thing. And then a strange thing happens – this insecure, immature blocked writer and this despondent, world weary teen begin to form a unique and oddly wonderful friendship. She even reads his first novel and dubs it ‘cool.’
At the beginning of the third act, there is a scene that is a revelation. It changes everything – for the better, in the long run.
Written and directed by Michelle Mulroney and Kieran Mulroney, Paper Man is one of those low-budget indie films that says a lot by observing details – like the way Richard can’t get past the opening sentence of his novel because he can’t come with a satisfactory name for the main character, or the way the cottage’s furniture distracts him. It’s about a guy who might be able to pull his life together if he can just figure out what to do with his hands – and a girl who needs a friendship that fits her unique personality; a friendship that acknowledges her as being worth knowing.
Parts of Paper Man are bleak in the extreme, but others are bright and fun. There’s a party sequence where Richard addresses his immaturity by living through it and coming out the other side as something he wasn’t before. The scenes with Richard and Captain Excellent begin as one thing and, finally, end as something else.
Abby has her conversations with Christopher to help her stay grounded and real, but the party is a pivotal moment for her, too. She moves from having fun to being the odd person out, eventually, achieving a kind of catharsis that frees her from the chains of her world weariness without leaving free of a kind of gravity.
The chemistry between Daniels and Stone is delightful. In a situation where it would have been really easy to come off as creepy, their relationship comes across as two lost souls recognizing in each other things that they lack in themselves. Daniels hasn’t been this good since Pleasantville and Stone gives a performance that should have gotten her some sort of awards recognition.
Reynolds steals several scenes as the superhero imaginary friend who really wishes his unimaginary friend would grow up and let go, but is determined to stick it out until Richard does, in fact, grow up.
I know it’s early days, but Paper Man is the best movie I’ve seen this year.
Sadly, this wonderfully dotty and thoroughly engaging film gets a disappointing DVD release. The only features are the theatrical trailer and a twelve-minute making of featurette. While the featurette is pretty good, it really only scratches the surface of the film. I wish the DVD had included a commentary track, but it is what it is.
Grade: Paper Man – A
Grade: Features – D
Final Grade: B+