First Hit: As the credits rolled at the end of the film, I realized I had really enjoyed it despite its obvious flaws.
Jeff Daniels plays Arlen Faber a lonely critical curmudgeon who, twenty years earlier, wrote a spiritual self-help bestseller called “God and Me”.
In his current situation he refuses to respond to letters, denies he’s Arlen Faber, and holes up in his house for days on end because of his own difficulty to be happy and seamlessly interface with life and the fame the book brought. In the book he wrote; Arlen posed questions to God and then provided answers which were purportedly received from God.
Arlen became known as the “The Answer Man” because the answers to the questions were so profound to the average person which is what caused his book to become a best seller.
The film doesn't go into how he got to the state of needing to write the questions, let alone how he came to the answers. What we do know is that his father died 5 years before the film begins and he was very close to him, and he doesn’t have a connection with God. We know the latter because he’s shown going to churches asking for guidance by speaking and looking into the empty halls and ceilings, he shown reading spiritual books which are piled up everywhere in his house, we see him listening different spiritual CDs, and is shown doing different meditations and yoga poses.
Arlen also has a bad back and because of this, he seeks help from Elizabeth (played by Heather Graham) a healer and Doctor of Chiropractic. Her son, Alex (played by Max Antisell), is being overly protected by Elizabeth because of her own fearful reasons. When these two meet, a shift happens for them and others who are connected to each of them.
John Hindman wrote and directed this screenplay. Although the concept is good, I think more could have been done to create deeper and more interesting characters. Because of this, the film jumps from section to section with both extraneous scenes (If you see the film think of the mailman and his family and multiple shots of him lying on the floor with bad back) and scenes not developed enough (More about his relationship with his father and more about why he wrote the book - what drove him). Daniels, to his credit, was good and at times did more with the character than what was probably in the script. Graham was good and very engaging as was Antisell as her son and Olivia Thirlby as Graham’s receptionist Anne.
Overall: I liked the concept and most of the acting and was drawn to the subject matter. However, the screenplay needed to be rethought and enhanced along with stronger direction to make this a more powerful film.