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Poor Robert Forster. He's responsible for two of the best onscreen performances this year, but they're both in movies most people will never see, even if audiences are lucky enough to have the films play in a theatre near them. Forster's turn in the film adaptation of David Mamet's Lakeboat is strong enough to be remembered at end-of-the-year award time, and his latest, Diamond Men, might feature an even better performance from the leathery veteran.
Forster plays widower Eddie Miller, a traveling diamond salesman approaching 60 like a school bus with no brakes. After a heart episode leaves him uninsurable and undesirable to his employer, Eddie is given a choice - break in Bobby, his young, inexperienced replacement, or hit the road. Because he's worried about making the mortgage payments, Eddie opts for the former, thus launching the tale of the older, wiser man and the young, brash dude driving around Central Pennsylvania for several weeks. You know they'll dislike each other at first, but eventually warm up to one another. So why bother? The younger guy must be played by some hot, up-and-coming actor like Mark Ruffalo, right?
Actually, no. Bobby is played by Donnie Wahlberg, who, despite having screen time in one of the biggest films of all-time (The Sixth Sense) is politely referred to, at best, as either a washed-up has-been or Marky Mark's balding brother. But you know what? He ain't bad, either. Wahlberg's Bobby, an ex-vending machine supplier who scored well on the psych portion of his test in diamond sales school, isn't so much brash as naïve to the ways of the world. He thinks he can just waltz into stores owned by Eddie's clients and sweet-talk his way into boffo sales. Unlike Eddie, who has to be at the top of his game to stay afloat, Bobby sees sales as something to do when he's not chasing tail.
Sure, there are the typical clashes between the two (over everything from music to proper attire), but when Bobby shows a genuine interest in learning the trade after a tough week on the road, Eddie takes him under his wing. Bobby learns selling isn't an exact science, unlike the things he was taught in training school. "That's not what we learned in Providence" is a line he repeats over and over again.
If Eddie has a mantra, it's "Protect the line." He's referring to the extremely valuable stash of diamonds the two men peddle, and because Eddie takes so much care in guarding the stones, you know it'll somehow factor into the film's last act. What you don't see coming is how it happens. I won't go into the whole thing, but it involves another has-been (Jasmine Guy, A Different World) and something called the Altoona Riding Club (which, incidentally, was the original title of the film).
Men is a lot like Spring Forward, which featured another molasses-paced, impeccably acted May-December relationship between two guys reluctantly forced into friendship by their employment. While I enjoyed Forward more as a film, Forster's acting trumped the performances of Ned Beatty and Liev Schreiber. You hear Men is a film about an old salesman ready to be put out to pasture and immediately conjure images of Willy Loman, but Forster's Eddie is far from it. Loman despised his job, but you can tell Eddie loves it (especially the routine), even as he trains the man who will eventually render him obsolete.
1:42 - Not Rated but includes language and brief nudity
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