The Answer Man

Guess what: the guys who write self-help books are people too. That's right, the people who say they've found the answers to life's Big Questions are just as clueless as the rest of us. Well, okay, perhaps not quite as clueless as all that; after all, they have figured out a way to make a fortune writing books and giving speeches, whereas the rest of us must take their books out of the library or, if we're feeling especially extravagant, buy their books for ourselves. But isn't it comforting to know that they have problems of their own, too?

That, in a nutshell, is the very obvious premise behind The Answer Man, a comedy of sorts about a reclusive self-help author who must come to terms with the fact that he doesn't really know what he's talking about. And he's not just any self-help author: Arlen Faber (Jeff Daniels) is the author of a bestselling book called Me and God whose agent (Nora Dunn), in an opening scene, emphatically declares that Arlen has been touched by the divine. We then cut to Arlen at home, swearing profusely as a courier interrupts his meditation. And so the lofty, spiritual guy has been brought down to our mundane level. Are we laughing yet?

Jeff Daniels as Arlen Faber

Curiously, despite the fact that Arlen's book is nearing its 20th anniversary—and despite the fact that it has led to countless spin-offs such as Me and God for Teens and The Me and God Diet—Arlen himself remains an enigma to the general public. Apparently his book became hot stuff without him ever doing an interview or any sort of publicity tour; no one even knows what he looks like, and so the courier (Tony Hale) is reduced to trying to figure out whether the guy who accepts his packages is Arlen himself or merely his assistant.

Given how much Arlen hates dealing with the public, and given how incredibly successful and presumably lucrative his books have been, you might find yourself wondering why Arlen doesn't have an assistant. Well, perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Arlen likes things to be "just so" in his house, sometimes to an obsessive degree, and he really, really doesn't like it when people get too close to his various possessions, some of which have deeply personal significance to him. An assistant would just get in the way.

Lauren Graham as Elizabeth, Olivia Thirlby as Anne

Arlen begins to come out of his shell, though, when he hurts his back in a big way and he ends up crawling on all fours to a brand new chiropractic clinic. How new is this clinic? When Arlen shows up, the chiropractor, Elizabeth (The Gilmore Girls' Lauren Graham), and her receptionist, Anne (Juno's Olivia Thirlby), privately celebrate the fact that they have a "real patient." But Arlen, to his surprise and ours, takes a liking to this clinic, and to Elizabeth in particular—especially when he tells her his real name and she has no idea who he is.

She figures it out soon enough, though. So does Kris Lucas (Lou Taylor Pucci), a bookstore owner who has just come out of rehab and is trying to get his business back on its feet again. Arlen pays a visit to Kris's store, hoping to get rid of some of his books, but Kris refuses to take them—until he coerces Arlen into making a deal: For every few books that Kris accepts, Arlen has to answer one of Kris's questions about the meaning of life. And since Arlen agrees to this deal very grudgingly, his answers tend to be rather terse—and so the big, inspirational lessons of his books are reduced to a few half-hearted slogans.

Lou Taylor Pucci as Kris

Daniels is, admittedly, rather good at tossing off these lines, and making them seem kind of profound even as his character seems rather jaded about the whole thing; these pearls of pop wisdom could have been simply glib, but something in the way Arlen says them suggests that they may, in fact, be true, as far as he's concerned—he just doesn't care at the moment. Arlen does, however, care about impressing Elizabeth, so when she turns to him for advice, he lights up and gives her precisely the sort of answer that you'd expect a spiritual self-help guru to give—and Daniels convinces you that, while Arlen might have lost whatever nondescript faith he may have once had, he almost certainly wants it back.

So, credit to the actors where it's due. And the script, by first-time director John Hindman, does give them a few good bits to work with, such as one early scene in which Elizabeth, before she meets Arlen, explains to one of her dates why they won't be seeing each other again. There are also some touching moments involving her son Alex (Max Antisell).

Arlen's answers seem more attractive to Elizabeth than to others

But the story is ultimately too half-baked for its own good. It may not be so bad that, when Arlen discusses particular religious beliefs with anyone, his train of thought makes no immediate sense; after all, pop-spirituality "experts" often get that sort of thing wrong. But the film never convinces us that Arlen had what it took to become such a successful author in this field in the first place. And the film ultimately ends on a note that is just as pat and unsatisfying, in its own way, as the self-help books that this movie tweaks.

Talk About It

1. Someone asks Arlen if he just "made up" the stuff in his book; he replies, "I don't know."Do you think it is possible that God might have spoken through him without him knowing it? Why or why not? Has God ever spoken through anyone without them knowing it? In Scripture? In your experience?
   
   
2. One character, after a disappointing run-in with Arlen, says, "Maybe he wrote Me and God, but he did not read it." When have you failed to follow your own advice to other people? How would you explain that inconsistency?
   
   
3. Several characters have "father" issues: one man's father has died, a boy's father has abandoned him, and so on. Does this relate in any way to the difficulty that some of them have in relating to God (i.e. the Father in Heaven)? How might this relate to one of Arlen's last lines, about the role that Elizabeth, a mother, plays in her son's life?
   
   

The Family Corner

The Answer Man is rated R for language (a smattering of four-letter words). The main character is the author of a spiritual self-help book who claims to have had some sort of unique relationship with God, but in private he doesn't really seem to believe. At one point, his fans begin to sing "What a friend we have in Arlen" to him.

Photos © Magnolia Pictures

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