Robert Downey Jr. is one of the greatest stars of today’s Hollywood and perhaps one of the last film stars in traditional meaning of the word. His first attempts at stardom, however, weren’t exactly impressive, at least judging by The Pick-Up Artist, 1987 film written and directed by James Toback. In the film Downey plays Jack Jericho, young New York schoolteacher who developed an interesting hobby. He practices and develops pick-up lines that he occasionally tests while encountering attractive women on the street. One of his targets is Randy Jensen (played by Molly Ringwald), a museum guide whom he seduces and have quick round of sex. Under normal circumstances, that would be just one of Jack’s conquests, but Jack gets intrigued when Randy refuses any further contact. He starts following her and discovers that she is being harassed by local gangster Alonzo Scolara (played by Harvey Keitel) over the gambling debt created by her alcoholic father “Flash” (played by Dennis Hopper). Jack decides to help her even if such cause looks hopeless.
The Pick-Up Artist was box office flop, greeted by decidedly non-enthusiastic critics and ultimately became one of the more obscure titles in Downey’s filmography. Most of the blame for that should go to James Toback, who apparently didn’t have a clue what kind of film he was about to make. It starts somewhat promisingly as some sort of romantic comedy with an interesting concept of male serial seducer receiving the taste of his medicine. However, soon afterwards it transforms into lame attempt of crime comedy with cliched situations and characters. This is reflected in great actors like Hopper and Keitel playing characters indistinguishable from those they played in earlier and much better films. Molly Ringwald, star of 1980s teen comedies, apparently doesn’t have a shred of chemistry with Downey who does his best, but can’t overcome inept script. Toback’s direction isn’t much better; film’s only sex scene is not shown directly, but indirectly through some uninspired dialogue which was supposed to be funny. Even the unusually short running time of this film looks less like a product of effective editing and more like a sign of desperation, because Toback apparently doesn’t know with what to fill his work. For audience today it is complete waste of time and for Downey it was a signal that the path towards truly stellar heights would be long and hard. Film later gained notoriety after people began to interpret Toback’s story about pick-up lifestyle as autobiographical and basis for various #metoo accusations.
RATING: 2/10 (-)
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