Movie Review: "Paper Man" (2009)

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Movie: "Paper Man"
Director: Kieran and Michelle Mulroney
Year: 2009
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour and 50 minutes

An eccentric author named Richard (Jeff Daniels) travels to a remote east coast cabin in an effort to begin writing second novel, though the first one bombed. His wife Claire (Lisa Kudrow) is a surgeon and lives in the city, commuting back and forth the see her husband on the weekends. Richard has an imaginary friend he calls Captain Excellent (Ryan Reynolds) who has "been with him" since his childhood; Mr. Excellent serves as Richard conscience, and helps him when he can't make decisions or handle pressures of life. Richard meets Abby (Emma Stone), who he hires under the pretense of babysitting his kid, though he is childless. Despite her finding out he has no child to babysit, Abby and Richard begin a friendship with one another and help each other grow as human beings.

What's with all of the Ryan Reynolds lately????

Right off the bat, this movie moved very slowly, taking forever to get to any conclusion or specific point. It just following Jeff Daniels' character on a rather meaningless, boring journey of self-discovery. Everyone in this movie is insecure about themselves. Richard doesn't understand why his wife wants to be with him and questions their relationship, while she seems downright miserable, though they are not going through a trial separation. Abby basically lets her crappy boyfriend walk all over her and doesn't stick up for herself until the very end of the movie. Richard seems to do anything for Abby, and viewers are never quite sure whether he has romantic feelings for her or more of a fatherly affection...there's a very thin line between the two throughout this film.

This is just a middle-of-the-pack Indie movie that gives Indie movies a bad name: slow, aimless, borderline creepy, insecure as hell, and awkward. Once in a while, independent films are fantastic and can make a lasting impact on viewers and cultures alike, but this movie isn't that movie. We forgot it as quickly as we had seen it, and the only reason we knew about it in the first place is because it was coming off of Netflix's instant queue. This movie could easily get lost in your 500-movie queue abyss, if you're at maximum capacity like we are. You hear people talking about how movies like this are great, cinematic pieces of brilliance, only to turn around and question why they think so.

My Rating: 4/10
BigJ's Rating: 5/10
IMDB's Rating: 6.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 10%
Do we recommend this movie: I say no, BigJ says meh.