The Tv Set
The Age
Thursday June 12, 2008
The TV Set
21st Century, 88 mins, M, drama, 20063/5Writer-director Jake Kasdan explores, in knowing comic detail, the trials and tribulations of Mike Klein (David Duchovny), a writer-producer trying to get a series accepted by network television. Inevitably, every element he cares about is stripped away; the question is, how much is he prepared to concede? Interestingly, I don't think Kasdan is asking us to accept that Mike's semi-autobiographical project is necessarily great writing. But the premise of his script - a guy returning to his home town after his brother's suicide - poses challenges to the network's assumptions, and the rueful comedy revolves around the way it's reworked and sabotaged, in every conceivable way, by everyone associated with it. The more they say they love it, the more they want to turn it into something else, preferably something as big as their latest hit, Slut Wars. Kasdan's comedy is sharp, but not ungenerous, and there are fine performances, notably from Judy Greer, as Mike's serenely manipulative agent; Fran Kranz as a self-centred actor; and, above all, Sigourney Weaver, as the ferociously efficient network boss, a white pointer in a power suit. No DVD extras
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