Paper Man (film)
Encyclopedia
Paper Man is a 2009 independent film
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...

 by Kieran
Kieran Mulroney
Kieran Mulroney is an American actor known for his numerous television appearances. He is also a musician and screenwriter, along with his wife, Michele. He was born in Alexandria, Virginia, where he graduated from T. C. Williams High School. His brother is actor Dermot Mulroney.-Television:* NCIS...

 and Michele Mulroney.

Plot

Richard is a failed novelist who still talks to his childhood imaginary friend, Captain Excellent. At the urging of his wife Claire, Richard has moved to a Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...

 beach community for the winter season in order to overcome his writer's block.

There, Richard meets 17-year-old Abby and hires her as a weekly babysitter, even though he has no children. Their tenuous friendship is sparked by Richard's awe over Abby's youth and innocence and Abby's enjoyment of Richard's writing; they eventually grow so close that she tells him about her twin sister's death, while Richard confides in her about his failing marriage. Eventually, however, the two must face the reality of their lives, with Abby standing up to her loutish boyfriend and Richard bidding goodbye to Captain Excellent once and for all.

Cast

  • Jeff Daniels
    Jeff Daniels
    Jeffrey Warren "Jeff" Daniels is an American actor, musician and playwright. He founded a non-profit theatre company, the Purple Rose Theatre Company, in his home state of Michigan...

     as Richard Dunn
  • Emma Stone as Abby
  • Ryan Reynolds
    Ryan Reynolds
    Ryan Rodney Reynolds is a Canadian film and television actor, best known for his roles in such films as National Lampoon's Van Wilder, Waiting..., The Amityville Horror, Just Friends, Definitely, Maybe, The Proposal, Buried, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Green Lantern.One of his best known...

     as Captain Excellent
  • Lisa Kudrow
    Lisa Kudrow
    Lisa Valerie Kudrow is an American actress, best known for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the television sitcom Friends, for which she received many accolades including an Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards...

     as Claire Dunn
  • Hunter Parrish
    Hunter Parrish
    Hunter Parrish is an American actor and singer. He is known for playing Silas Botwin in Showtime's television series Weeds.-Personal life:...

     as Bryce
  • Kieran Culkin as Christopher
  • Arabella Field
    Arabella Field
    Arabella Field is an American actress and film producer known for her roles in films such as Dante's Peak, Feeling Minnesota, Godzilla, National Treasure, Paper Man and as Melinda Bitterman in the animated television version of Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott's daily comic strip Baby Blues.Field was...

     as Lucy

Release

Paper Man was first shown at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival
Los Angeles Film Festival
The Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by the Los Angeles Times is an event held annually in June in downtown Los Angeles, California. The Los Angeles Film Festival began as the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival in 1995. The first LAIFF took place over the course of five days in a single...

. MPI Media Group acquired the rights to show the film in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 and it was given a limited release on April 23, 2010.

Critical reception

Paper Man received poor reviews from critics, receiving 27% from Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

 with a weighted mean score of 4.6 out of 10 and a score of 37 out of 100 at Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

 based out of 15 reviews. Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle is an American Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] [[film reviewer] and the author of two books on pre-[[Motion Picture Production Code|Hays Code]] Hollywood...

 of The San Francisco Chronicle called the film "listless, tepid, lifeless and fake". Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...

said it was "Off-kilter and awkward from the get-go, this comedy never finds any rhythm or reason". Nevertheless, the performances were well received, with Emma Stone taking the lions' share of the praise.
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