Butler's Cinema Scene

James Marsden, Jack Black

“THE D TRAIN” My rating: B-  

97 minutes | MPAA rating: R

“The D Train” begins in familiar, comforting territory.

Jack Black plays an overgrown manchild attempting to relive — and retroactively improve — his outsider adolescence by planning his 20th high school class reunion.

Black’s Dan Landsman is so desperate to be cool and in charge that he’s painful to behold. At the same time, Dan‘s reunion mania leaves little time for him to appreciate the genuinely positive things in his life — the Missus (Kathryn Hahn), their 14-year-old son (Russell Posner), and his good-guy boss (Jeffrey Tambor).

(In fact, Dan is such a miserable sad sack that I found it hard to laugh, even when the frustrated character explodes in furious karate kicks like the ursine warrior Black depicts in the animated “Kung-Fu Panda” franchise).

Dan concocts a scheme to boost reunion attendance by enticing Oliver Lawless (James Marsden), once the school’s dominant BMOC, to return. Oliver is now an LA actor with a national TV ad peddling suntan lotion.

This will require a trip to California to corner Oliver in his natural environment. So that his employer will cover his air fare, Dan lies  that he’s tracked down a big business prospect in Hollywood.

It soon becomes evident to everyone but the starstruck, uber-square Dan that Oliver is a drug-scarfing, bed-hopping bottom feeder who has gotten all the mileage he can out of his hunky good looks. Still, the failed actor is more than happy to engage in a drunken carouse paid for by this this barely-remembered figure from his high school days.

For Dan it’s a chance to get up close to the classmate who previously wouldn’t have given him the time of day.

Then  “The D Train” drops a plot development that is guaranteed to raise eyebrows, appall some viewers and turn the movie inside out. If you want to read the spoiler — and there’s no way to not mention it in a thorough discussion of the film — continue.

In his eagerness to please, to be validated by Oliver, Dan finds himself in a squirm-heavy situation. After a night of cocaine-rich club hopping, the two men have sex.

Whoa.

Dan is suitably freaked in the a.m.  Oliver asserts it was no big deal — and agrees to come to the reunion.

But now that much-anticipated event is thick with tension.  Dan is terrified that news of his night with Oliver will get out. By deceiving his boss he has jeopardized his job.

Moreover, the smarmy/charismatic Oliver soon works his way into the good graces of Dan’s spouse and child — generating jealousy in our conflicted hero that will inevitably explode.

Homosexual panic isn’t exactly a new topic for the movies, but encountering it in a mainstream comedy with major stars (or at least what starts out looking like a mainstream comedy) is a shock that will leave many viewers reeling.

Writer/directors Andrew Mogel and Jarrad Paul have given themselves a huge challenge with their first feature. “The D Train” is a delicate balancing act between the funny and the dispiritingly sad, and it doesn’t always successfully negotiate that vibrating tightrope.

But you’ve got to give them credit for daring. And the performances — especially from Black and Marsden — anchor the film in reality. Or at least what passes for reality in the movies.

| Robert W. Butler