for many people , procrastination isn’t a problem to overcome , it’s a high art .
we’ll do just about anything to put off a task .
when the deadline for this column nears , it’s the only time during the week dishes get washed and the bed made and laundry done and plants watered and . . .
eventually , hopefully , sometimes , there’s a breakthrough and we actually get down to work .
amazingly it’s almost always easier than we dreaded and after finishing , that sense of oppressive apprehension melts away .
and then , the next time , we do it all again .
english professor grady tripp ( michael douglas ) is a master .
seven years ago , his first book was a hit .
he’s been working on his second — a short 200-page piece — since then .
fearful that he can’t live up to the first , he can’t bring himself to finish it .
no writer’s block , he’s nearing 3 , 000 pages with no end in sight .
now he’s having a particularly difficult day .
the college’s annual writers conference is bringing in accomplished novelists reminding tripp that other people are finishing _their_ books .
during the first day , his wife has left him , his married girlfriend informs him she’s pregnant and his agent is in town with a six-foot transvestite in tow .
by the evening , our besieged writer is driving though the snow-covered streets of pittsburgh with a suicidal student beside him , a stolen jacket that marilyn monroe wore on her wedding day in the back seat and a murdered blind dog stuffed in the trunk .
this could be a pivotal point in his mid-life crisis .
and then there’s the next morning .
there’s a lot to like about this movie .
there are no huge explosions , shattering glass or computer-generated dinosaurs to distract from the very real human issues .
grady is caught up in the curse of people who accomplish great things early in their career .
in the world of ” what have you done for me lately ? ” , he knows his second book has to be better than his first .
instead of finding out , he drifts , comfortable in the insular cocoon of academic peter panhood .
he doesn’t have much of a life and neither does his star pupil james leer ( tobey maguire ) .
james may be suicidal and psychotic .
certainly everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie .
he makes up a past of working clash anguish because the truth of wealth and comfort just isn’t interesting enough .
as the weekend progresses , they are both forced to fully engage life .
that’s the question they must face : comfort or real experiences ?
the film takes some interesting chances .
non-traditional relationships are presented as matter-of-fact .
extra-marital , gay , interracial , professor-student : here they aren’t judged , merely choices .
the actors are all first-rate .
douglas triumphs , playing against type as he spends most of his time disheveled , unshaven and clad in a pink women’s house robe .
maguire’s disengaged alienation works perfectly here .
robert downey jr . as grady’s agent livens up his scenes .
director curtis hanson ( ” l . a .
confidential ” ) makes a few missteps .
the women are underused .
frances mcdormand does a good job of her limited role of sara , grady’s married lover but we never understand much of who she is .
the chemistry between the two of them is non-existent which makes some of the ending unconvincing .
katie holmes is a student with a major crush on the professor , but her character goes nowhere .
we never even see grady’s exiting wife .
this is very much a guy’s film .
the varied relationships between the men are much more convincing than any of the others .
grady’s alternating mentoring and rejection of james is the centerpoint of the film , not him and sara .
as the boomers age , expect to see more mid-life crisis films to catch the attention of that demographic .
eventually it’ll probably become cliche , but right now we’ve got a winner .
i’ll finish this in a second .
right now i have to grab some paint .
i noticed some trim in the other room that needs a little touch-up .
( michael redman has written this column for so long that he’s made mid-life crisis a career choice . )