SYNOPSICS
The Man from Elysian Fields (2001) is a English movie. George Hickenlooper has directed this movie. Andy Garcia,Mick Jagger,Julianna Margulies,Olivia Williams are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2001. The Man from Elysian Fields (2001) is considered one of the best Drama,Romance movie in India and around the world.
Byron Tiller, happily married with a young child, is a writer whose last novel has ended up in the remainder bins. Down on his luck and struggling to make ends meet, he keeps bashing away, refusing to admit that perhaps he is not that good. One day, at wit's end and feeling sorry for himself, he meets someone who has actually read his book: a rather elegant looking Englishman who introduces himself as Luther Fox. Luther runs an escort agency Elysian Fields, which provides extremely wealthy women with attractive, intelligent dates. Desperate for any job- and Luther guarantees good pay and convinces him that it can be only temporary -Byron reluctantly agrees, keeping the whole thing hidden from his wife. He soon finds himself face-to-face with an extremely attractive woman, whose aging husband is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist grappling with a novel that may be his last. Before long, Byron finds himself immersed in a world that he finds almost impossible to believe and even harder to...
More
The Man from Elysian Fields (2001) Reviews
Intriguing film
"The Man from Elysian Fields" is a writer's film filled with sensuality, failure, loss, hope, infidelity, intrigue and deception with a touch of film noir. Byron Tiller (Andy Garcia) plays the starving artist with an early success that brought neither fortune nor lasting notoriety who is ready to compromise his ideals for grocery money. Luther Fox (Mick Jagger) has set up a deceptively unobtrusive escort service across the hall. Luther draws Byron into a discussion about life and winds up with a recruit for his high-class service. But writers need broad experience and this opportunity is too tempting for Tilly to pass up. He's entirely too reluctant which makes him ripe for the picking. And he's just the candidate for the wife of a prominent author. This multiple Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, Tobias Alcott played by James Coburn, is losing his muse and his health, but his powers of deception are as sharp as ever. His wife, played by the icy Olivia Williams, draws Tilly into the family with several offers he can't refuse. Andy Garcia nails the struggling writer's persona begging our sympathy while he spirals down the hierarchy of alternatives to keep the wolf from the door. Mick Jagger is perfect for the part of the Faustian lizard who's tiring of the game he's mastered. The role of the escort, his office facade and ultimately his own personal relationship crumbles under the weight of deception. Tilly is seduced by the temptations of a shrewd couple (the Alcott's) whose too-good-to-be-true offer leaves him with a great story and perhaps a Pulitzer of his own. But he's got to write it. There's always a catch. The Hollywood ending, so clearly the decision of a focus group isn't a worthy conclusion to this story. This is another film with talented actors, superior cinematography and an intriguing story but lacking direction. Recent films like "Posession" come to mind. The product is compromised when the director lacks the courage to bring the film to a meaningful - in this case a disturbing - conclusion rather than one that's "satisfying," Tilly's editor spoke to this issue when he rejected his second novel saying that the reader doesn't want to think microcosm when she's sitting on the bus... In trying to please the mainstream, reach a wider audience and improve the box office, we lose opportunities to excel. So what else is new in Hollywood?
profoundly interesting film
Among its myriad unique qualities, `The Man From Elysian Fields' portrays Southern California not as the traditional sun-drenched paradise familiar to us from postcards and movies, but rather as a dank, drizzly, depressing locale, a perfect backdrop for the sad little tale the filmmakers are telling. And what a strange little tale it turns out to be. Andy Garcia, in one of his best screen performances to date, stars as Byron Tiller, a generally unsuccessful novelist who finds himself so low on funds that he is literally unable to support the wife and child he loves so dearly. Driven by desperation, Byron reluctantly agrees to sell his services as an `escort' for lonely women. His very first client turns out to be the lovely young wife of a dying novelist who exploits Byron not only for his sexual prowess but for his skills as a writer, devising a scheme to get him to assist her husband in completing his final work (given his incapacitated state, the novelist and his wife have an arrangement that she is free to seek male companionship from an escort service). With its highly original and provocative storyline, `The Man From Elysian Fields' exerts an almost hypnotic pull on its audience, seductively drawing us into the lives and the complex relationships of its numerous characters. Even though we may question the credibility of Byron's decision (after all, were there NO other options for employment that he could come up with?), the depth and richness of Garcia's performance brush all such quibbles aside. He makes Byron into such a sympathetic figure that we can't help but follow him along on his journey. Garcia is aided immeasurably by the tone of elegiac sadness that permeates the film, as well as by the superb performances from Julianna Margulies, Olivia Williams and the late, great James Coburn, whose valedictory performance this turned out to be. With his gnarled hands and grizzled face, Coburn strikes right at the heart of what it means for a man of genius to be in the final throes of his life, terrified of losing his creative powers at the end and desperate to leave behind an untarnished image when he's gone. Watching the deceased Coburn delivering a speech about impending death carries with it an eerie prescience that only enriches the melancholic tone of the work. Williams gives a beautiful performance as his young wife genuinely in love with a man who can no longer return that love on any but the most spiritual level. Margulies is poignant as Byron's devoted but naïve spouse whose world comes crashing down around her the moment she discovers the man she married is not the man she thought he was. Indeed, of the performers, only Mick Jagger, as the head of the escort company (Elysian Fields) who starts Byron on his rode to personal disaster, falls short of his potential. Though not bad as an actor, Jagger doesn't seem to have the naturalness in front of the camera and the comfortability factor necessary for a truly first-rate performance. `The Man From Elysian Fields' is, in many ways, a classic morality tale in the grand old Faustian tradition, as Byron, willing to sell his soul for temporal gain, discovers that the compromising of one's principles is the first step toward ruination and a life spent regretting the loss of what one holds most dear. Even though this Faust deludes himself into thinking he is sacrificing his honor and integrity to benefit those he loves rather than himself, it turns out to be a fool's bargain anyway, partly because what he is giving up is the very thing he wants most desperately to retain. Written by Philip Jayson Lasker and directed by George Hickenlooper, `The Man From Elysian Fields' is a lyrical, beautifully modulated work that haunts the viewer with its insight and power long after the final credits have rolled by.
Time well spent
"The Man From Elysian Fields" tells of a struggling writer (Garcia) who pens his soul into the pages of a novel in a last ditch bid for success. A solid three star romanticized drama with a beautiful cast, "...Elysian Fields" delivers its "deal with the devil" story with seductive style and an engrossing ebb and flow which will entrance those who can overlook the subtle contrivances required to make the puzzle pieces fit. Good stuff for all but the most cynical drama junkies. (B+)
Will sell my soul for a good book.
Despite the lukewarm reception by the local and national media for this film, I found myself enjoying this rehash of Faust, tremendously. It's a very old theme, but in here it is told very stylishly and with a lot of panache by director George Hickenlooper based on the screenplay written by Phillip Jayson Lasker. At the outset, I must say that I'm not the greatest fan of Andy Garcia, but I have to confess that in this film he does probably his best work, despite of other praised roles in the past. His Byron Tiller is a loser. We sense it the moment we see him in Rizzoli trying to recommend his book to an indecisive customer. His curiosity trying to find out what his office neighbor, Luther Fox, is up to, proves to be his eventual downfall. At home life seems very normal with Dena, his wife, and son. Being broke makes him accept an offer he should have turned down from the very beginning. The encounter with the Allcotts, Tobias, a best selling author at the end of his life, and Andrea, his wife will be fatal. Are we to believe this was a chance encounter, or was it planned before hand? Ultimately the viewer will have to arrive to his own conclusions. All the acting is first rate. Andy Garcia is very effective. So is the rest of the cast, but Mick Jagger is superb portraying this lizard kind of a man who deals with very special situations and needs. Also notable, Olivia Williams, as the ice queen that doesn't even take off her undergarments for a tumble in the hay. James Coburn is a sly fox who knows what he's doing from the very beginning. Julianna Margulies is the only one that has very little to do as the suffering wife. The film has a glossy and sophisticated look. Viewing it will be satisfying because basically it's a good story well paced and acted.
A lot better than one could expect
The Man From Elysian Fields is a film with not one bad performance, a number of really good ones, and a story that keeps it and eye-gluer, in a sense. Andy Garcia is the writer, Byron, struggling to sell a second novel after a first that is selling almost nothing after seven years. Enter Fox (Mick Jagger) who runs an escort service for women, and offers Byron to be the "fulfiller" of married women. Byron wants to quit, until one night he meets the wife of Tobias Alcott (James Colburn), a famous, aging writer. Every character is convincing, even Jagger, who has strayed away from acting roles in general since the flop Freejack, and here takes a tailor made role and gives off a fascinating presence, and Colburn makes his hard bitten writer as an occasional comic relief. The surroundings of Pasadena adds to the allure, and it's delightful in it's sweep, under the guise of honest fiction. An independent sleeper. Grade: A