IFC Films
80 min., dir. by John Krasinski, with Julianne Nicholson, Timothy Hutton, and Will Forte

John Krasinski has already implanted himself in people’s minds as America’s sweetheart, thanks to his portrayal of Jim on “The Office.” It is for this reason that Brief Interviews With Hideous Men — which he directed, adapted to the screen from the David Foster Wallace novel, and plays a crucial role in — is such an obvious choice for him. He attempts to position himself as far as he can from the role that has made him a household name, and in doing so both succeeds and fails in equal measures.

The story is brutally simple. We follow Sara, played by Julianne Nicholson, as she interacts, eavesdrops, and interviews a variety of different males. It feels somewhat like Jim Jarmusch’s film, Coffee and Cigarettes, where the camera serves simply as a fly on the wall to a variety of celebrity cameos. Unlike Coffee and Cigarettes, however, I found quite a bit to enjoy here. Perhaps it’s because there is a sort of universal trajectory for the story — the attempt to understand men and their own attempt to interact with women.

Of course, with all films structured as such, it becomes a battle of who are the most interesting characters. There are plenty of interviewed individuals who will be out of your mind as soon as you finish watching — and for an 80-minute film, Krasinski is already attempting the stretch to a reasonable feature run-time. It makes one wonder if this sort of project would have been better served as a short film, with all the fluff shaved off. But regardless the film moves along quite briskly. Any scene that feels dull or uninteresting will be over with soon enough and replaced by something more arresting.

Dominic Cooper and Christopher Meloni are two actors who specifically steal the screen. Of course, I’ve never seen an example where those two don’t — but here, they are given some of the most interesting material to work with. It would be a shame to ruin what their roles are, so I will leave it at that. Will Forte never manages to stretch outside of his usual performance, but he has such an infectious enthusiasm that it’s hard not to enjoy him. Even Ben Gibbard, lead singer of Death Cab For Cutie, proves that he can hold his own in an ensemble project like this. The biggest tragedies here are the complete underuse of the brilliant Will Arnett and the always wonderful Rashida Jones. They each have barely anything to do and without checking a cast list you might forget they were ever part of it. Julianne Nicholson as well, despite being the center character, feels robbed of anything very interesting to do. She spends a lot of time staring and equal times looking teary-eyed. I suppose the films focus is really one the men who surround her, but we may have been able to learn more about them if we also understood better where she was coming from.

The star moment, though, belongs to John Krasinski. I suppose as the director/writer he can take his pick of parts, and he most certainly chooses the best one. It almost feels like this film was created to allow him room to flex his acting muscles. If that is the case, while self-indulgent, he still succeeds. As he stares past the camera and attempts to justify his behavior you can’t help but feel engaged. As a director and writer, his style is simple and unobtrusive — but he moves his actors like chess pieces and paces perfectly what could have been a laborious viewing experience.

The only thing I was left wondering at the end, however, was: who is this film for? Is it for women trying to understand men? Is it for men trying to see a more honest reflection of themselves? Or is it a rare gender neutral film? I believe it’s mainly a film for men. I personally found a connection with many of the characters, while not in the minutia of their details, but instead in the grand anxieties, fears and inadequacies that plague us all. Are these “hideous men?” Not at all. They are simply men.