I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With

Any movie that offers Bonnie Hunt, Sarah Silverman and Amy Sedaris in the supporting cast has to be well worth watching, and comic actor Jeff Garlin takes advantage of the terrific talent he recruited for his 2007 directorial debut, a sad-sack comedy about an overweight man who feels out of step with the world around him. Familiar as Larry David's manager Jeff on "Curb Your Enthusiasm", Garlin plays James, a still-struggling, 39-year old Chicago actor who still lives with his widowed mother. His self-esteem is so low that he can't meet women, but it's the comical way he views his single status that makes his dilemma involving. If the storyline sounds a bit familiar, that's because the film is partially a tribute to the 1955 Ernest Borgnine classic, "Marty", about a lonely Bronx butcher living with his meddlesome mother. In fact, Garlin uses "Marty" as the play which James is desperate to do since he is so empathetic to the character's situation.

Naturally there is a love story of sorts in this new millennium version, and Silverman plays Beth, an off-kilter, sexually voracious ice cream parlor server who takes him on an underwear shopping spree. Their best scene together is in his favorite convenience store where they improvise different characters in different aisles. Hunt plays a lonely elementary school teacher who shares a passion with James for jazz musician Ben Webster. They meet accidentally in a record store and then again at a career day at her school where he hilariously exposes his sexual neuroses in front of a classroom of first-graders, including his best friend Luca's pert daughter Penelope (played by Dakota Fanning's look-alike baby sister Elle). In a wedged-in cameo and looking quite a bit like Jerri Blank, Sedaris plays the school's counselor who speaks to James after his inappropriate monologue. David Pasquesi plays Luca, a retirement home manager, and his scenes with Garlin have an easy rapport that makes their friendship easy to believe. Almost stealing the movie is character actress Mina Kolb, who plays James' pixilated mother with pluck and heart.

There are also unexpected cameos from teen idol Aaron Carter and Gina Gershon (don't ask…but the set-up is funny), as well as sharply played bits by director Paul Mazursky (as the snaky director of a candid-camera-type show, "Smear Job"), Tim Kazurinsky (as the unsuspecting victim of that show) and Dan Castellaneta (as the tough-love convenience store owner). With his rueful bouts of insecurity and self-loathing, Garlin's comic sensibilities resemble those of Albert Brooks, and the casual dialogue at its best reminds me of "Modern Romance" and "Defending Your Life". The one persistent problem I had with the film is pacing as some scenes dragged out longer than necessary. The problem is more evident in the first half when Garlin is trying to establish the right tempo, and the lack of real conflict adds to the sluggishness. Regardless, what he does well is capture that gnawing sense of desperation one feels upon the revelation that life is not what it is supposed to be, that a significant other may be out of reach, and that a steady diet of junk food eaten on a car hood is the only sure thing when it comes to gratification.

This film is about a struggling actor trying to find satisfaction in life, especially love which he has not had a taste of for 5 years.

It basically is a film featuring a man with very poor social skills, and he says wrong things all the time. The plot is hollow and contrived. The main character, James, is lonely, but this theme of loneliness is not adequately explored. It is more like an empty statement which other subplots stem from. Sadness and disappointment after being dumped are superficial. There is a serious lack of emotions in the film.

It is not funny as a comedy either. There are some funny one liners but that is it. It lacks the happy and uplifting atmosphere to infect people with happy mood. I don't find "I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With" funny.

Anybody expecting the acerbic wit of Curb Your Enthusiasm (due to Jeff Garlin's presence) or the belly laughs of Something About Mary (due to Sarah Silverman's presence) will be sorely disappointed. The film isn't bad, but "not bad" is hardly a recommendation, which is a shame, because there's some great talent involved. Jeff Garlin seems to have cashed in a lot of favors with Second city alumni and fellow stand-up comics to help him out on his feature film directorial debut, and I'm guessing that none of them will be putting this on their resumés. It's got several inspired plot mechanics that go nowhere, like the fake cast of "Streetcar Named Desire" starring Aaron Carter and Gina Gershon (who are both great at scene stealing, which is quite a feat when you read the laundry list of well known participants) but someone should have told director Garlin that cameos do not a film make. The film is essentially without plot and tends to meander from one situational set-up to the next without really developing a story. This lends an episodic feel at best and at its worst, it comes off as mundane. It seems to be going for an early 90s indie-comedy nostalgia, but it lacks the innovation and quite frankly the era that made those films appealing. It's shot well, but still has a stagy, direct-to-video look, and the music is so dinner-theater schmaltzy that you'd swear this was shot-in-Canada (it wasn't). The performers are obviously having a good time, but the whole project seems to be about ten years past relevance, and I -for one- have always hated watching performers have an obviously better time than their audience, but at least nobody is ghost walking through their roles, which lends an improvisational spirit even if it goes nowhere. It's not offensively bad; it's definitely watchable. But if you have any expectations arising from the supporting cast -actors from Little Miss Sunshine, Strangers With Candy, The Simpsons- you'll be more than aggravated that you wasted your time on this rather than rewatching one of those aforementioned titles instead. And with the title "I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With" they've all but assured that nobody's going to watch it anyways. You can do a lot worse, but you can do a whole lot better, too.

Garlin outdoes himself as writer-director-actor in his indie production about a big guy (Garlin) wandering around Chicago with an eye for every woman he sees. The laughs keep coming almost every minute. It's a somewhat dramatic and serious story about a man looking for love, but done with great comedic writing and acting. The supporting roles are also very well done and very funny and really make the movie rich.

Rose Abdoo is hysterical in her receptionist role taking you right into the mood of the rest of the film. Sara Silverman is awesome with some of the great bits she does with Jeff. Bonnie Hunt is classically great in her role. I only wish there was more of her in the film, as I think most will agree. It's certainly refreshing to see her in a tight leather outfit.

David Pasquesi was the aloof detached sidekick, and voice of reason. Mina Kolb plays Jeff's mother who he lives with. There were numerous other cameos, all of them done very well.

At the premier Jeff mentioned his inability to do more with Bonnie due to production issues. Still, it's good to leave you wanting more. I think it's that indie thing of keeping some things ambiguous to let the audience do some thinking for themselves to fill in the blanks. The wordy title should clue you in to this.

Jeff said some of the basic characters were based on his past relationships. This explains why they work so well. Real life people are always unusually colorful and makes great characters. He departs quite a bit from what you might expect, having seen Curb Your Enthusiasm and some of his other work. It's one of those break out things where an actor takes some risks to do something they maybe always wanted to do but couldn't.

I think it's noteworthy that Garlin's improv Second City background, and Hunt's for that matter, set the style here of acting being the focus of the story and the directing. It's perhaps a new innovative hybrid of improv meets indie film-making.

James Aaron (Jeff Garlin) is a struggling actor in Chicago. He's 39 and lives at home with his mom. He performs at Second City. His girlfriend dumps him. Her brother is his agent and he dumps him, too. His life is a struggle all around.

Jeff Garlin has recruited a bunch of his famous friends to be in his indie. There are little nuggets of humor which are accentuated with funny co-stars like Sarah Silverman and Bonnie Hunt. This is basically Marty (1955) and even makes it one of the central premise. The only thing is that he's not being Marty. He has so many female companions beginning with a starter girlfriend. It's going against his own premise. I do like the guy a lot as a character and as a performer. He does need some help with the story construction.