The D Train, film review
(15) Andrew Mogel, Jarrad Paul, 100 mins. Starring: Jack Black, James Marsden, Kathryn Hahn
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Jack Black gives one of his most nuanced and affecting performances in this oddball indie comedy. Traces of the rambunctious comic schtick that Black brought to more mainstream films such as School of Rock and Shallow Hal remain but his character here, Dan Landsman, is a desperate and insecure family man, still tormented by memories of high school. Chairman of the school reunion committee, he is organising a 20th-anniversary party for the alumni.
Although happily married to Stacey (Kathryn Hahn) and with a teenage son, Dan is in a dead-end job and suffers from a chronic inferiority complex. He is conscious that his old classmates regard him as a nonentity – if they remember him at all. Desperate to be noticed, he comes up with a hare-brained scheme to entice the most popular kid in their old school to the reunion. If Oliver Lawless (James Marsden), now an actor in LA, attends, Dan thinks he will be able to bask in reflected glory.
The writer-director duo Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel take the film into territory that more conventional comedies wouldn't go near. Dan's hero-worship of Oliver has a pronounced and eventually acknowledged homoerotic element. Black manages to make Dan both engaging and seedy and pathetic – someone prepared to risk his family and his job in reckless pursuit of the popularity and acceptance denied him as a kid. With a less affable actor, the same character could take on a very creepy veneer. Marsden is well-cast, too, as the sleazy narcissist so idolised by Dan but so full of self-loathing himself.
The film falls apart during a messy and unconvincing final reel. Paul and Mogel are successful in exposing the contradictions, bad faith and misery in Dan's suburban life but then backtrack desperately to contrive a happy ending, which makes little sense in light of what has gone before.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments