Mr. Jealousy . Newcity Chicago . 06-22-98

Mr. Jealousy

DIRECTED BY: Noah Baumbach

REVIEWED: 06-22-98

Noah Baumbach's second feature, "Mr. Jealousy," is less successful than his unusually sly post-collegiate comedy "Kicking and Screaming," yet its story of ultra-chatty New York pals past thirty who can't get their romantic lives in order is never less than charming. The central story is Lester's, played by Eric Stoltz in his familiar laid-back manner; his jealousy toward his diffident new girlfriend Ramona (Annabella Sciorra) motors the plot. Baumbach's narration atop his amalgam of screwball comedy, Woody Allen- and Seinfeld-isms masks a number of pacing problems, yet when Lester gets his greatest rival, we see what the movie might have been. When sulky, snarky Chris Eigeman, from Whit Stillman's movies (including the current "Last Days of Disco") and "Kicking," appears as Dashiell, a zeitgeisty novelist, you suddenly wonder what knack of finance kept Baumbach from casting Eigeman and Stoltz in opposite roles. Eigeman knows how to underplay a joke or elongate a punchline's punch. "That's something I learned from Whit," Eigeman says in his rapid cadence. "He instilled the notion of having the confidence to hide the joke. Don't lay the joke out there; it won't be reacted to as well. No one will have discovered it. Hide it a little , screw around with it a little. It's a blessing until I get traditional comedy scripts and it's a very bad fit. I go and do what I do and hope to bring a little personality to it and they get this stunned look in their eyes like, 'What the hell is he doing?'" So what kind of scripts did Eigeman see after his debut in Stillman's "Metropolitan"? "The overly erudite preppy guy who can wear a tuxedo and maybe drink a martini that something really bad is going to happen to and we're going to root for the bad thing, we're going to cheer where he gets tortured ruthlessly and finally killed. Y'know, that's not the long game of career building. I have no interest in being the young Tony Randall, even though he's a great actor. Hollywood never knew what to do with him. So I'll play fewer cards." Commercials have kept Eigeman afloat. "I'm grateful to Pacific Bell, oddly enough, for being their spokesperson for two years. To have a public utility saying, 'No, no, we think he's funny, he's not just abrasive,' well, that's great. People find me abrasive. But I believe in bringing something to the table. Y'know?"

--Ray Pride

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