The line that separates romantic comedies from sex comedies, at least in popular perception, is gender perspective. In other words, female perspective belongs to the the former, while the male perspective belongs to the latter. And it matters very little how explicit the content is, with Roger Dodger, rather tame and prudish 2002 film written and directed by Dylan Kidd, being seen as sex comedy.
The protagonist, played by Campbell Scott, is Roger Swanson, seemingly successful advertising copywriter whose professional skill match his success with women. His conquests include even his boss Joyce (played by Isabella Rossellini). On the day she ends the relationship Roger’s Manhattan office is visited by his 16-year old nephew Nick (played by Jesse Eisenberg), who came from Ohio to New York for college admission interview at Columbia University. The real purpose of Nick’s visit is to ask his uncle for some expert advice for ending his virginity. Roger agrees and does so in form of practical demonstration. He and Nick spend the night visiting Manhattan bars where Roger employs his knowledge of psychology and clever pick up lines to show how easy is to seduce women. The pair meets two attractive women – Andrea (played by Elizabeth Berkeley) and Sophie (played by Jennifer Beals) – who are, much to Roger’s surprise, less attracted to Roger’s suaveness and more to Nick’s simple innocence.
Roger Dodger represented feature debut for Dylan Kidd and, following its premiere at Tribeca Film Festival, gained a lot of attention mainly for quality of its screenplay. Kidd, who, according to the interviews, had based character of Roger on one of his acquaintances, wrote very sharp dialogue and that task was rather demanding, because the talking was almost everything characters did in the film. Role of Roger is often considered the best in career of Campbell Scott, a talented actor who often had misfortune of playing less than interesting lead characters and who was also one of film’s producers. He plays Roger as self-assured but arrogant ladies’ man whose “smoothness” hides dark side, partly responsible for not so strong connections with the rest of his family. Scott’s performance is well-matched by Jesse Eisenberg in his first feature role. The rest of cast is also good, especially Elizabeth Berkeley who tries to acquit herself for taking part in disaster called Showgirls. Unfortunately, Kidd’s screenwriting skills aren’t matched with his directorial skills and, although quite solid for someone’s feature film, Roger Dodger leaves plenty to be desired. It nevertheless deserves recommendations to fans of comedies, whether those comedies are “sex” or merely “romantic”.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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