Nice Review for TTVS

Director: Jake Kasdan
Released: April 28, 2006 (Tribeca Film Festival)

*****
As if selling the pilot was the hard part...writer Mike Klein (David Duchovny) has successfully sold a pilot script to the Panda Network. And with that, he must cast his deeply personal show-based on his brother's suicide and the repercussions-and get a pilot to air in the face of demanding script notes by network president Lenny (Sigourney Weaver) and other suits. Soon, with a lead actor he didn't want and the show taking an unknown shape, Mike begins to not only battle the people around him, but also himself.

With recognizable actors in nearly every major role, writer/director Jake Kasdan has made a dramedy for the people interested in the television process. Sadly, the humor and irony in every scene will most likely be lost-or have a severely diminished impact-on everyone else. However, what every audience will appreciate are the performances from the cast. It is as if Kasdan channeled Robert Altman's The Player in creating the script. From the very beginning, including a plot by Mike to endear his choice for the lead male role to the execs, we know he has no chance in getting the depressing suicide project off the ground. But Duchovny plays Mike as if he does, with a certain level of enthusiasm combined with world-weariness.

The TV Set is light and breezy, never hampered too much by the premise and bordering on farce like For Your Consideration. While everyone understands the ramifications of diluting and changing the story (the suicide of a brother to the mother, for instance), none of them take it to absurd heights, acting or implying the world is coming to an end. They battle, especially Mike, yet are content in the knowledge this is only a television program. Lenny, befitting her position, is the most scattered, yet Weaver grounds her as much as the script allows. The rest of the cast, including Justine Bateman, Ioan Gruffudd, Lucy Davis, Willie Garson and M.C.Gainey, compliment both Weaver and Duchovny. It would be easy to go in with fists blazing, taking punches at the television system. Instead, there is a sense of love and parody from the actors.

If there is one part of the film which does not work, it revolves around Gruffudd's relocated Richard McAllister and his family going through turbulent times. There are exactly two scenes with his wife, one of which introducing her and the second showing her leaving. What is the point? Are we supposed to see the strain the network life puts on both the suits and the writers? Is it to demonstrate the problems with international relocation or not understanding the requirements of a new job? Excise the two scenes and the only thing which is missed is a hopeful writer introducing herself during a soccer game. Again, why?

Why The TV Set got such a bad rap in its initial theatrical run is beyond me. It's not conventional humor-more industry oriented-but the movie doesn't have a bad bone in its body. Outstanding performances all around, but especially from Gruffudd and Weaver, ground the events and characters in a such a way we never hate the ostensible villains. We laugh at them and understand their perspectives. And maybe laugh with them.


Originally posted on themovierambler.vox.com

http://jj79.livejournal.com/352404.html