This Movie is Not Rated

 Jack’s girlfriend, Cynthia, takes him to a fortune teller.  Who proceeds to tell them that Cynthia has been having an affair.  Jack is skeptical, but then Cynthia confirms it.  She says she is leaving him for the musician that she has been having an affair with.  He tries to talk her out of it, but she says she is tired of dealing with his problems and just wants to have fun.  He has been having night time panic attacks and has been withdrawing socially (hardly ever wanting to go out and do things).

Cynthia leaves, however, the fortune teller continues with Jack’s tarot card reading.  She sees death and something to do with his next birthday.  She also feels the presence of an older man, maybe his father, who has a message for him.  We don’t get to hear what the message is, but Jack seems a bit shook up at the mention of his father.

We have now jumped forward ten months.  Turns out Jack (Sean Maher) took the fortune teller’s reading to heart.  He is terrified of dying and has taken safety precautions to the extreme.  The only time he leaves his apartment is to see his psychiatrist and then he wears a football helmet.  He downs vitamins and special health shakes like crazy.  Has become a germaphobic.  In fact he won’t even let his mother in the door unless she promises that she has been taking her vitamins regularly.  He knows his actions aren’t rational, but he figures if he just keeps it up three more weeks (until after his birthday) then everything will be ok.

Ironically enough, Jack, works as an estate planner.  He has been conducting all his business over the phone and then sends the paperwork to the clients, so he doesn’t have to meet them in person.  He is currently working with a man that has a terminal illness, Mr. Hines.  Even though they haven’t met in person, they seem to have developed a friendship.  He even tries to give Jack some fatherly type advice about life.

Jack has just arrived back at his apartment building, after visiting his psychiatrist and ends up in the elevator with Audrey (Jamie Ray Newman).  She lives down the hall from him.  Audrey is obviously very upset about something, but he’s not sure what to do about it.  A little while later she shows up at his apartment door and says she needs an estate planner and has heard that he is one.  He agrees to help her out.

She doesn’t want to talk about why she suddenly needs an estate plan at her age.  Instead she is focused on doing all the things she has been wanting to do, but has never got around too (I guess you could call it her life list).  Jack finds her intriguing.  He is terrified of death and deals with it by withdrawing.  She isn’t afraid and is out living her life to the fullest.

Audrey starts convincing Jack to do some things with her, like go out to dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen that she’s always wanted to go to.  Which is a huge thing to ask of Jack (by the way, for those that don’t know, Hell’s Kitchen is a rather scary area located in Harlem, in New York City).  He really likes her and wants to go, but really struggles with the idea.  He resorts to taking Valium, to calm himself down enough to even get out the door, which ends up making his trip to Harlem even more interesting.

I enjoyed this movie.  It is an interesting look at how people deal differently with their problems.  Also, about the way people present themselves to the outside world and how it isn’t always who they really are.  There are definitely some surprises along the way. 

This is really Sean’s film.  He does a fabulous job of portraying his character.  Even though his actions may seem outlandish at times, you really sympathize with him.  He is a terrific actor and I hope to see him show up in more projects in the future.  In case your didn’t already know, he played Simon in the TV show “Firefly” and in the movie “Serenity” (created by Joss Whedon).

Some of my favorite quotes:

Jack’s Mom – “I saw a program the other night on obsessive compulsive disorder.  You know Jack, they have drugs.”

Jack – “I don’t have that.  I have “I’m going to die disorder”.”

Jack – “There are people out there dying every day, thinking that there was no probability.”

Jack – “That I am completely committed to screwing up my life and that I do it so well.”

Jack’s psychiatrist – “Well, we’ll just write this off as one little chapter in the Jack Wilton epic.  Ya know, the f*cked up years.”

Mr. Hines – “There’s peace in that Jack, knowing that you’re dying, but that you weren’t afraid to live.”

Jack – “This is just … just my luck.  I never thought I’d die while digesting soul food.”

Audrey – “You look more flesh-tone this afternoon.”

Audrey – “Ooh, do … do you prefer that.”

Jack – “What, you being nonchalant about the alphabet?”

Jack – “It’s like a giant flying living room with cocktail service, right?”

Audrey – “Are you ok?”

Jack – “I think the rush of panic just kicked in the drugs.”

Jan

P.S.  Comments are welcomed.  Scroll towards the bottom of the page (below the spoiler section) to where it says “Click Here to Make a Comment”.  Or on entries from previous days there is a comment box.

Following is additional information about the show that contains spoilers.  If you don’t want to be spoiled don’t read any further.

Wow, I didn’t see that coming … Jack killed his father!  Granted it was a mercy killing and his father wanted him to, but what a horrible thing to have to live with.  Then to not be able to talk to anyone about it, no wonder he had so many issues.

Sean played the final scene so well.  The sudden realization that Audrey wasn’t terminally ill, but that she is going to commit suicide.  Then his frantic attempt to stop her.  He put all concerns for his own well being aside in order to stop her.  Which made his death all the more tragic.

Tags: dvd, jamie ray newman, movie, review, sean maher

This entry was posted on Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 10:34 PM and is filed under Movie Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.