"Diamond Men"
Eddie Miller (Robert Forster) is a traveling jewelry salesman whose life on the road has spanned over 30 years until one day he has a heart attack. Now, considered a liability by the front office, Eddie learns that he is about to lose his longtime sales circuit to another. Adding insult to injury, he also learns that he has to show the ropes of the road to this new guy, Bobby Walker (Donnie Wahlberg), in "Diamond Men."
Robert Forster, who has maintained a low profile in films despite his decades in the business, came back into the limelight with his perf in the 1997 Quentin Tarantino movie, "Jackie Brown." With "Diamond Men" the veteran actor stars as a solitary, recently widowed jewel salesman who has run the roads of his Pennsylvania territory for decades. After his sudden heart attack he is informed by his younger boss that he is now a poor insurance risk and has to give up the only work life he has really known. With little guarantee of continued employment in the company, he is also told that he is the one who will train his replacement. The only commitment he can get from his condescending boss is the vague "we'll do our best" to keep the veteran salesman employed.
Then, like an additional slap to the injury of losing his job, Eddie is saddled with Bobby, whose total sales experience stems from two years of servicing vending machines. Brash, flashily dressed and virtually unschooled in sales etiquette, the young know-it-all presumes from the start to grasp more than his mentor. He resists, at first, the wisdom of the road dispensed by Eddie but soon learns that the older man knows what he is doing and it behooves the rookie to pay attention. As the barriers come down between them, during the weeks of training and traveling the roads of Pennsylvania, the pair becomes friends and a mutual bonding begins.
As Eddie and Bobby get to know, and like, each other they both receive an education. Bobby learns the subtlety of the jewelry business, how to act around a client and, most important, how to close a sale. Eddie gets reintroduced to a joie de vie that he hasn't had since his wife went into the years-long bout with cancer that eventually took her life, leaving Eddie with a void that he fills with his work. He is scared and insecure when Bobby coerces him to go to a "massage" parlor, especially when his masseuse uncovers a giant eyeball tattooed on her chest. Bobby feels so strongly about helping his muse enjoy life, he then fixes him up with a mature, attractive woman, Katie (Bess Armstrong), not realizing that she has her own working girl past.
There is a palpable chemistry between Forster and Wahlberg as the two very different, generationally separated diamond men have to first, tolerate each other (especially Eddie towards Bobby), then, accept each other and, eventually and believably, become good friends. Bess Armsrong is perfect as the love interest for Eddie and gives dimension to her perf as a woman with a past but, nonetheless, a good woman. She is the spark that allows Eddie to live once again. Supporting cast is scant but character actor George Coe is convincing as one of Eddie's oldest customers and a close friend who falls for a much younger woman, to his own detriment. Jasmine Guy is likable as Tina, the lady who runs Bobbie's favorite "massage parlor" and has a genuine affection for the young fellow.
Techs are solid with crisp lensing by John Huneck and a varied production that brings you into the life, on the road, of a traveling salesman. The small town-feel of the little motels, the family restaurants and the mom-and-pop jewelry stores that Eddie and Bobby frequent puts you in the heartland of America in a very real way.
One problem I have with the screenplay, by helmer Daniel M. Cohen (based, loosely, on his father's own life as a traveling salesman), stems from the abrupt changing of gears as the story shifts from a buddy/road movie with a nice building of the chemistry between Eddie and Bobby to a dramatic turn where a rushed introduction of larceny changes the mood of the film. The drama that unfolds is set up, perfunctorily, in the beginning of the film and makes this crime portion feel tacked on and contrived. The upbeat final coda takes away some of the sourness of the last third of the flick and you come out of "Diamond Men" with, fortunately, a positive outlook as our heroes, in the end, are winners. This is as it should be.
I give "Diamond Men" a B.
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