**Spoiler Alert**
Directors: Andrew Mogel, Jarrad Paul/Starring: Jack Black, James Marsden, Kathryn Hahn, Jeffrey Tambor and Mike White
Many people carry some residual high school anxieties in their psyche; the fear of alienation, being hopelessly uncool and probably worst of all, the sentence of social pariahdom. And for many, the high school experience stigmatizes one almost permanently. Though most people I know (including myself) would rather be water-boarded than attend any school reunion, others find the idea appealing.
Dan Landsman (Jack Black), the self-appointed chairman of his high school reunion committee, pursues the task of organizing his class reunion with passionate earnestness. Unfortunately, his fellow committee members (who are also former classmates), treat him with the same low regard he probably endured in high school. When the film begins, we see him setting up an ad hoc committee call center with dedicated meticulousness; setting out donuts and setting up phones for his peers. When he mentions going out for a beer with the committee after an evening of cold calling classmates, the others casually decline his offer. But on his way home, he sees the committee members enter a bar together.
At home, we see Dan enjoy a more favorable estimation from his wife Stacey (an excellent Kathryn Hahn) and his son Zach (Russell Posner).
One evening, while watching T.V., Dan sees an ad for Banana Boat tanning lotion. The spot features a beef-cakey life-guard monitoring a busy beach. Dan realizes the lifeguard is none other than his former classmate Oliver Lawless (a very excellent James Marsden). Excited, Dan annoys Stacey by rousing her from her sleep to show her the ad, only to be scolded harshly.
Seeing Oliver inspires a plan in which Dan will fly to L.A. to convince the actor to attend the reunion. Imagining himself walking into the reunion with a very hip-looking Oliver; gaining social prestige and maybe respect from his classmates only strengthens his resolve. Of course the plan entails some measure of prevarication, as Dan explains to Stacey that his week-long mission to L.A. is a business while he proposes the trip to his boss Bill (the always amusing Jeffrey Tambor) as a bold initiative to lure a new client for the consulting business. The plan backfires when Bill insists he join Dan on the trip, for which no amount of dissuasion from the latter will discourage the former. The fact that Dan would lie to both his boss and his wife then create a situation in L.A. that demands he fake a meeting with a fictitious client is plausible if Dan's reunion anxieties are severe, which they are. Does Dan seem like the type of person who would cast discretion and common sense to the wind in a reckless pursuit of something so seemingly trivial? Not really, but we read of stranger acts undertaken by people who are otherwise levelheaded and risk-averse.
The obsession to sell the reunion idea to Oliver has unfortunate consequences at home; Dan begins to ignore Zach and his girl troubles; a neglected issue which has long-reaching ramifications.
Directors Mogel and Paul, who also co-penned the script, set up a juicy, tension-filled scenario (if not entirely believable) where Dan's job, marriage, father/son relations and his shaky standing with the reunion committee are all highly jeopardized.
In L.A., Dan meets Oliver for drinks and clubbing. Sporting trendy facial hair to offset his inveterate un-coolness, Dan also affects cool dude patter in his attempt to cajole Oliver into attending the reunion. While Bill spends time in his hotel room, preparing for a phantom meeting, Dan and Oliver party ferociously, making the club rounds, drinking heavily and partaking of a powdery substance in the process. Unfortunately for Dan, Oliver casually dismisses the reunion idea.
Over a few days course, we begin to see how Dan's lofty estimation of Oliver grows out of proportion. In an attempt to impress Dan and create the illusion of celebrity, Oliver pretends to know Dermott Mulroney (yes, the real Dermott Mulroney), who they spot sitting in a booth; his entourage very present. Mulroney is naturally puzzled after Oliver initiates conversation. The ruse works. Oliver returns to an admiring Dan, who sees him as someone herculean.
At this point in the film, the story takes a risk I found to be pretty mind-blowing for multiplex fare. In the afterglow of the evening, Dan finds himself in Oliver's shabby apartment. As the two trade bro-talk, they find themselves standing closer and closer until the two spontaneously embrace then engage in a passionate kiss. Where it leads we can guess as the two men wake then next morning; side by side. Though Oliver is unphased by the encounter, the act leaves Dan shaken and confused.
On the Bill front, Oliver pretends to be the client the two men are supposed to meet. Just when Oliver pretends to kill a deal that might free Dan from a potential disaster, the actor gets caught up in the emotional excitement of the deal. In a moment of detrimental spontaneity, he agrees to Bill's deal.
Returning home, Dan faces personal and professional ruin as his ruse is tenuously maintained while the emotional aftershocks of sex begins to wildly affect his behavior. Dan tries to discourage Oliver from attending the reunion for fear of their secret becoming public consumption. To his dismay, he discovers his erstwhile lover is dead set on attending.
In the second half of the film, we see Dan trying to put his family back together, dealing with possible job loss while a major confrontation at the reunion turns the event on its head.
I was particularly taken with the performances, especially James Marsden's and Jack Black's. Marsden hasn't really had the opportunity to shine in any film but he does so here. Jack Black has shown he has the acting chops to take on dramatic roles; an opportunity he doesn't waste as the socially vilified Dan Landsman.
Though we live in slightly enlightened times, the sex scene remains a surprise. The filmmakers don't treat the act as something freakish but as something two non-gay men might enjoy given the circumstances. And the secret they share doesn't crowd out the rest of the story, which deals with other issues, most notably Dan's search for social redemption and its lack of proportion in meaning to the idea of marriage and family.
I was a little disappointed to find the film didn't arrive at any great truth. Dan learns he must appreciate what he has, namely his wife and son but is it that all? Given what's transpired, it's hard to imagine someone would glean such prosaic wisdom from something out of the ordinary. How does the fling and the cataclysmic reunion affect him? Does the film give us a convincing clue?
I did find the final scene between Dan and Oliver refreshingly honest. What is obvious to everyone and the audience is articulated by Oliver as he disabuses Dan of his greatest illusions; his lack of celebrity status and his faked encounter with Dermott Mulroney.
I was taken in by the story; it offered something unusual and was a radical departure from traditional Hollywood fare. I didn't find the film to be hilarious but was amusing at times and if it doesn't posit anything profound, it also refuses to be business as usual. It takes the familiar suburban milieu with its stock inhabitants then wrenches it; defying the ordinary.
The D-Train is a Spring surprise. But my prognosis for the film is total and complete burial. In this cinema season where blockbusters crowd out anything with a modest budget and little marketing muscle, a film like Mogel and Paul's will lose out to costumed super things whose success is all but forcibly assured. Theirs isn't a great film but for first-time directors, it is a helluva start. I say see it before theater managers hurry the film canisters on UPS trucks and ship them back to the studio. I guess I should give the studio itself credit for letting it exist, albeit briefly, in cineplex venues. Will this happen again? Who knows? But sometimes anomalies morph into something commonplace. We'll wait and see.
