American Dreamer

Bluesky

Meet Horatio. Horatio is played by Peter Dinklage. Accordingly, he’s an intellectual (a university lecturer in economics), he’s crotchety, he drinks too much, he talks too much, and he’s irresistible to women. He’s about to fall on hard times as a result of an ill-thought-through decision, but watching him suffer will afford the viewer a degree of amusement. Stop me if you’ve seen this one before.

Should you be looking for another Dinklage cliché, it’s that he’s the best thing about the film, though there’s nice supporting work from Matt Dillon as Horatio’s frustrated and not terribly reliable real estate broker. Sadly, Shirley MacLaine is dialling it in as Astrid, the owner of the house which the said broker persuades Dinklage to buy. One can see how good the deal might have looked on paper. She’s elderly, she wants company, so she’s willing to have him live in part of the property at a cut-down price and then inherit the whole thing when she dies. Of course, the reality is that things are not that simple. Similarly, the film must have looked good on paper: two capable actors in an odd couple situation, resenting each other and then gradually becoming friends, generating comedy all the way. In reality it doesn’t quite hit the mark, but that’s not to say that it isn’t a pleasant way to while away an hour and a half.

The film balances its droll humour with slapstick, both Horatio and Astrid acquiring an increasing number of bumps and bruises along the way. There’s also sex comedy, some of which sits a little uneasily in light of how little has changed since the #MeToo movement kicked off (beyond men who carry on behaving as they always did having a new means of presenting themselves as the ones who’ve been mistreated). All this feels rather old fashioned, but perhaps that’s what one should expect from a film exploring the notion of the American Dream, herein represented by the acquisition of property. The scenes in which Horatio angrily reflects on how difficult this has become in an unbalanced economy have a little more life to them and feel like something that the actors can really connect with.

There’s the occasional pleasingly catty line. Even when she’s not paying attention. MacLaine can do withering well. There’s a strange subplot about a fantasy relationship which has the potential to go somewhere interesting but is, well, never really fleshed out. And there’s Horatio’s long-unfinished novel, which isn’t very good, though from the way it’s used to introduce chapters, one gets the impression that the screenwriters might not have noticed this.

The house is pretty, and worth a look if you’re a daydreamer yourself. The irony of an economics expert being crushed by economic realities is not lost. It’s an enjoyable enough little reverie; one simply feels that it might have been a good deal more.