Man Trouble

Man Trouble
Directed by	Bob Rafelson
Produced by	Vittorio Cecchi Gori Carole Eastman Bruce Gilbert
Written by	Carole Eastman
Starring	Jack Nicholson Ellen Barkin Harry Dean Stanton Beverly D'Angelo
Music by	Georges Delerue
Cinematography	Stephen H. Burum
Editing by	William Steinkamp
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	July 17, 1992
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$30 million
Box office	$4,096,030

Man Trouble is a 1992 romantic comedy starring Jack Nicholson and Ellen Barkin. It was directed by Bob Rafelson, and written by Carole Eastman, who together had been responsible for 1970's Five Easy Pieces. This film is held in somewhat lower regard and was a high-profile flop upon release.

This comical thriller is the fifth collaboration between Nicholson and Rafelson. Beverly D'Angelo and Harry Dean Stanton co-star.

Plot

Harry Bliss (Nicholson) runs a guard dog service and is going through counseling with his wife, Adele (Lauren Tom). A serial killer is on the loose in Los Angeles, so when the apartment of classical singer Joan Spruance (Barkin) is ransacked and she starts receiving threatening phone messages, Joan moves into the Hollywood Hills home of her sister, Andy (D'Angelo).

Joan doesn't feel safe there, either, because she's harassed by Andy's ex-lovers. She hires a guard dog from Harry's company, and soon Harry is providing more than protection for the beautiful singer.

Harry is a natural-born liar who, because of his profession, feels that he lives by a code of honor — even if he can't quite explain it — as one thing after another spins out of his control. Joan is soft and vulnerable as she is badgered by her conductor husband, harassed by unknown callers, menaced by men from her sister's past, and "helped" by Harry.

Cast

Jack Nicholson as Harry Bliss
Ellen Barkin as Joan Spruance
Harry Dean Stanton as Redmond Layls
Beverly D'Angelo as Andy Ellerman
Michael McKean as Eddy Revere
Saul Rubinek as Laurence Moncreif
Paul Mazursky as Lee MacGreevy
Lauren Tom as Adele Bliss

Reception

Man Trouble was not well received by the majority of critics. It currently holds a 19% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.^[1]

Variety's review said that "Jack Nicholson fans should feel cheated by Man Trouble, an insultingly trivial star vehicle. After some initial business attracted by his name on the marquee, film is fated for pay-cable use."

Film Four's review stated: "Sold on the proven teamwork of director Rafelson and actor Nicholson -- who had previously worked together on Five Easy Pieces, The King of Marvin Gardens and The Postman Always Rings Twice -- this romantic comedy proved to be one of their least inspired collaborations. Nicholson plays a grouchy dog-trainer who slowly loosens up in the presence of romantically challenged opera singer Barkin, who needs to get some canine security after a series of death threats. Obviously intended to be a bright and breezy romantic-comedy thriller, it ends up a mangy old mutt of a movie thanks to a charmless script and disastrous casting decisions."

According to Time out Magazine: "The trouble is, the film never seems to know where it's headed. Not quite a romance, a thriller or a comedy, it's a movie with an on-going identity crisis. Barkin, playing against type, produces a shrill caricature of femininity, while Rafelson indulges Nicholson's familiar soft-spoken laxity, another of his personable rogues."

Awards

Nominations: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor (Jack Nicholson)

References

1. ^ Man Trouble at Rotten Tomatoes

External links

• Man Trouble At IMDB