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Harvard Man (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:36
Fresh:12
Rotten:24
Average Rating:4.6/10
Consensus: Harvard Man is a pretentious, incoherent mess.
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: This innovative drama from writer and director James Toback (BUGSY, BLACK AND WHITE) follows the travails of Alan Jensen (Adrian Grenier), a Harvard student determined to live life to the fullest... This innovative drama from writer and director James Toback (BUGSY, BLACK AND WHITE) follows the travails of Alan Jensen (Adrian Grenier), a Harvard student determined to live life to the fullest and find the ultimate truth. He gets high regularly, and is sleeping with Holy Cross cheerleader Cindy Bandolini (Sarah Michelle Gellar), who also happens to be a mobster's daughter. Simultaneously, Alan is carrying on an illicit affair with his philosophy professor, Chesney Cort (Joey Lauren Adams), a woman with a vast sexual appetite. When his parents lose their Kansas home in a tornado, Alan is desperate to help them financially. He turns to Cindy's father for a loan and is soon entrenched in a high-stakes gambling scheme. But all is not as it seems and Alan soon finds himself in over his head with many aspects of his life: his drug use, the women in his life, and even the FBI. Grenier is endearing as the truth-seeking Alan, and as a tough-talking Mafia princess, Gellar steps far away from her television persona as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Eric Stoltz and Rebecca Gayheart lend their talents in supporting roles that add to the film's twisting storyline. [More]
Starring: Adrian Grenier, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Eric Stoltz, Rebecca Gayheart
Starring: Adrian Grenier, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Eric Stoltz, Rebecca Gayheart, Joey Lauren Adams, Ray Allen
Director: James Toback
Director: James Toback
Screenwriter: James Toback
Producer: Michael Mailer, Daniel Bigel
Studio: Cowboy Pictures
Reviews for Harvard Man
An overstylized, puréed mélange of sex, psychology, drugs and philosophy. Sometimes entertaining, sometimes indulgent -- but never less than pure wankery.
Grenier is terrific, bringing an unforced, rapid-fire delivery to Toback’s Heidegger- and Nietzsche-referencing dialogue.
I think it was Plato who said, 'I think, therefore I know better than to rush to the theatre for this one.'
A semi-autobiographical film that's so sloppily written and cast that you cannot believe anyone more central to the creation of Bugsy than the caterer had anything to do with it.
Might have been played as a glum cautionary tale, but in Toback's hands it becomes a lark--flashy, florid and blissfully over-the-top.
There's a certain niche audience that will eat up Harvard Man -- but whether that's the mob-movie set, the college-movie set, or the sex-movie set, I really have no idea.
A frustrating 'tweener' -- too slick, contrived and exploitative for the art houses and too cynical, small and decadent for the malls.
For those who accept the offbeat premise, the film ultimately delivers a satisfying dramatic exploration of the ways we create ourselves.
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