The Treatment (2007)

It involves romance between romantically experienced people. They are intelligent, articulated, educated and their greatest concerns are more complex than just "getting together". They are above 35, they have children and past baggage, complicated lives and still they crave love, like any other primate.Ian Holm is the spice of the movie. I would venture to say that without him the entire thing would have been a fiasco. It's not that the other actors don't act well, but their roles are so bland and uninteresting. Even the obvious intelligence of the lead male character has only an intellectual academic form and the emotional chemistry is rather poorly expressed.Overall it is above the average romcom, but average towards weak in its category. Since the target audience is older educated people, it should have had more spunk and a lot more brains.

THE TREATMENT (2007) *** Chris Eigeman, Famke Janssen, Ian Holm, Stephanie March, Stephan Lang, Blair Brown, Harris Yulin, Roger Rees. (Dir: Oren Rudavsky)Analyze This!: Literate rom-dramedy with stand out work by Eigeman & Janssen.Jake Singer (Eigeman), a New York City prep school literature instructor, is in a state of flux. After a bad break-up (is there any other kind?) he runs into his ex, Julia (March of NBC's "Law & Order SVU") and opens his fresh wounds to the fact she has moved on and gotten engaged. Awkwardly he accepts her invite to an engagement dinner. This adds fuel to his fire with his visit to his passive/aggressive Argentina émigré analyst Dr. Morales (Holm), whose demeanor suggests his patient is only to blame for all his shortcomings.While Jake stews with his domestic dilemma he's busy juggling an extracurricular activity as the school basketball team's statistician who has been attempting to mentor one of the temperamental players, a good kid who is struggling with his skills and the brow- beating by their jerk coach (Lang), who tells Jake to butt out of his methods. On top of that he is jockeying for a summer sabbatical to London for the school by making good with the headmaster (Rees) at a get-together dinner held at a trustees' widow's home.The recent widow, Allegra Marshall (the gorgeous Janssen, best known as Jane Grey from the "X-MEN" film franchise, in one of her best performances to date), is also in a state of flux dealing with her grief at the loss of her husband, the victim of a sudden heart attack, leaving her to care for their young, impressionable son and a toddler they were in line for adopting (she has failed to report his death to the agency negotiating the legalities).Jake is smitten with the hostess – at first unknowing she is a widow – and begins to take interest in her and her family. Before he knows it he is hooking up with her and when she makes her confession he is at first shocked – and then relieved – since all his flirting has paid off. Naturally he is scolded by Morales.The couple gingerly eke out their newfound relationship but soon find an awkward bump when the adoption agent (Blair) makes an unexpected visit to see the welfare of the progress of the bonding between the child and the impeding parents-to-be. Based on a novel by Daniel Menaker, Daniel Saul Housman's screenplay is literate and charming but problematic only when it uses the narrative device of the therapist to act as a surrogate conscience to Jake, popping in here and there as an unseen noodge. Rudavsky, a documentary filmmaker making his first foray as a feature film director, stumbles a little bit in some flatfooted staging, but is acquitted by the fine acting by his leads.Eigeman, best known for his brainy, WASPy turns in Wilt Stillman and Noah Baumbach films (and if they ever did a live-action adaptation of the ARCHIE comics would be a top choice as Reggie!) , comes across as a latter- day Charles Grodin, a sardonic scold whose witty banter and cosmopolitan airs belie his insecurities, does a fine job imbuing the uncertainties and neuroses of his character that has shades of a Woody Allen manqué, but he also has some good nuanced choices in his phrasings and facial expressions underscoring the dialogue given.Janssen proves to be a fine counterpoint, a glammed-down statuesque gal out of his league, but not entirely unlikely soul mate. She is an underused and underrated actress; this proves she can do so much with so little.An indie sleeper that should be sought out for those who like their rom-dramedies with wit and sex appeal.

Somewhere between adaptation and shooting, the magic leaped out of this film. The synopsis looked promising and it could have delivered, but it seems that poor casting choices and spotty dialog made it fall short. The leading man isn't quite convincing on film. His technique feels more fit for stage, but when on screen you see an actor and not a character. Famke Janssen and Ian Holm are the two bright spots in the nigh hour-and-a-half feature. Holm was the one actor who garnered a laugh. But they both seem out of place, heavy hitters in a smaller film. It could be that a bigger star was set to play Chris, but dropped out, leaving the film with less studio support while Famke and Ian stayed on. This film has gone on to win some festival awards, which makes me wonder if I missed something, or was simply not in the right mood for the film. Nevertheless, it could have been much, much better.

Each to his own, but I'm really surprised at the review above.I also saw this in Edinburgh (it's where I live, and incidentally the Edinburgh Film Festival was the best ever this year for me).The film I saw was cute, funny and unpredictable. There are some lovely unexpected moments. Without giving too much away... it's a relief to see a script dispense with the old "lie piled upon lie" cliché and instead have characters who decide to live up to their responsibilities. If you thought you would never get to see a New York intellectuals film in which grown-ups behave like grown-ups for once - well, here's your chance.There are also some great lines. It's impossible not to smile at Ian Holm's vaguely monomaniacal therapist intoning, in his Argentinian accent, "once you start driving ass-backward through life, it can be very hard to stop. And you realise too late that the major decisions in your life are lying in the road like so many crushed squirrels." This is possibly my favourite therapist quote since Ingrid Bergman was told in Spellbound to have "sweet dreams - and tomorrow we will analyse them over breakfast." Ian Holm makes the part work perfectly because he doesn't overdo it.You end up feeling affection for both the therapist and his client, even though they are at odds. This is one of the film's best qualities. Secondary characters get a chance to develop, so for instance the father is not just an old tartar and the mother-in-law not just a disapproving snoop. What's most evident in this film is the writer's sympathy for almost every character, so that whether or not they are redeemed, you find yourself seeing their point of view, if just in momentary flashes. I loved this.Meanwhile, Famke Janssen gets a rare chance to act, and lives up to it.The sweet thing about this film is that it isn't slavishly Woody Allen, or pointedly anti-Woody Allen either. It plays as if Woody Allen never existed. This means that there are no weary inevitabilities. Anything might happen (and frequently doesn't, because something else intriguing happens instead).It doesn't all work, but I've only got minor gripes. Overall, it could have done with being just a little longer, to make some of the secondary relationships more convincing. But erring on the side of keeping it short was probably the smarter mistake to make.If you get a chance to see this, go. Decide for yourself which review gets it right.