I think 'Harvard Man' is the best film Sarah has made to date, although it is not necessarily my favourite. I do have to say I'm a big fan of writer/director James Toback and this film holds added interest for me because it's one of his most overtly autobiographical works.
The actual plot is outrageously far-fetched, but it doesn't purport to be anything else and is filmed with all the usual Toback trademarks: eccentric editing, split-screen multi-scenes, uneven pacing, sketchy characterisation, weird story structuring and bizarre dialogue centred around philosophical discourse.
It's what happens after the plot has been established that is really surreal, as the film begins to concentrate on Alan's acid trip (the lead character based on Toback). Everything is strange and fragmented, intended to heighten and emphasise Alan's descent into drug-induced temporary insanity.
Toback has deliberately cast the film with several actors who are seemingly unsuited to their roles, provides them with idiosyncratic personality traits and places them in entirely implausible scenarios. For instance, Joey Lauren Adams is not the first person you might think of to play a philosophy lecturer at Harvard University and Sarah Michelle Gellar doesn't immediately come to mind as perfect casting for the daughter of a Mafia boss. To emphasise this even more, Toback cast Gianni Russo, who appeared in the first two "˜Godfather' films, as her father. Eric Stoltz and Rebecca Gayheart are the most unlikely FBI agents this side of David Duchovny's character in "˜Twin Peaks' and the jittery Adrian Grenier doesn't exactly have an obvious physique for a star basketball player, even at college level.
Many film critics were hostile towards the film and pointed to the casting as evidence that Toback is a hopeless and wilful incompetent. Others applauded him for the bravery of his casting, observing that it worked to the advantage of the film because it confounds the expectations of the audience and is suited to the surreal and improbable scenario into which the characters had been placed. For myself, I think it was a stroke of genius and all the actors rise to the occasion.
I think "˜Harvard Man' is genuinely a quite brilliant film, although I fully appreciate that it would not be to all tastes. I've watched it on half-a-dozen occasions and I continue to come away impressed every time.
