Being in the arts is difficult. It's damn near impossible to make a living doing something in this field because everyone wants to do it, and so much is gambled onto one product. Just look at all the hopeful actors and actresses who wait tables while praying for a big break into the movie business. You either hit it big, or end up in the gutter; there's hardly any middle ground. That is the situation that allows the events of George Hickenlooper's near masterful film, "The Man from Elysian Fields" to take place.Byron Tiller (Andy Garcia) is a writer; he's got one book under his belt, but sales were in the tank. After his next book, which he spent 7 years working on, is rejected, he needs money...fast! Help comes from a man down the hall, named Luther Fox (Mick Jagger). He runs an escort service. Reluctantly, Byron agrees, which puts him into contact with Andrea Alcott (Olivia Williams), and her husband Tobias (James Coburn), who is a renowned author. But his newfound road to success may just cause him to lose his marriage to Dena (Juliana Margulies).The acting is top notch. Andy Garcia plays Byron in his usual low key way, but he brings a level of depth to the character that is not usually seen in many films. Mick Jagger defies the trend of music stars churning out bomb movies because they can't act. Jagger plays Fox with a cracking wit, but he also is able to give the character some extraordinary depth. Olivia Williams is terrific as Byron's beautiful client. She loves her husband dearly, but she needs a release that he can no longer give her. Fortunately for her, Tobias understands that, and is perfectly fine with her sleeping with Byron. James Coburn is terrific as Tobias. Tobias is a dying writer who has accepted his fate with wit, if not grace. But he still has his pride. TV star Juliana Margulies has made only a few ventures into film, but she fits right in as Byron's loving and devoted wife.Although the film has flaws, they are not with the screenplay. Simply put, this is one of the best screenplays I have ever heard. Every line has immense depth and intellect, and the wit crackles. There are a number of brilliant one-liners (the best one is not shown in the trailer, thank God). However, these are not the one-liners that appear so often in a David Spade movie. Instead, these are just very clever.The problems I had with the film is that when the film enters dark territory, such as when it shows Byron at his most desperate, it becomes unpleasant, and it ruins the spell that the movie works so hard to cast. This is partly due to George Hickenlooper, but mainly because the actors play their parts so well.This is a must-see for any adult film-goer who appreciates films with wit, depth and rich characters.

Being a nobody whose name does not come up in a Google search and a failed writer of bits of TV series, Lasker should have written a much more authoritative portrait of his alter ego, Byron Tiller. Instead there are several basic errors that the director or producer should have avoided in Lasker's script. They have nothing to do with budgetary restrictions. With so many films having been written about writers, by writers, it seems incredible that they should still be produced with fundamental faults that would never be tolerated, for example, in a script about lawyers by a lawyer like John Grisham. First, no failed novel is remaindered after seven years. More like six months. So the film starts out with a false premise. Second, a writer who has produced nothing significant for seven years does not maintain a professional office in downtown Pasadena, even in a second-rate building. He works in his spare room, just like tens of thousands of other writers who consider themselves to be doing quite well. Being able to maintain his own office, he therefore has no motivation to take up a type of work that evidently repels him and the plot loses credibility. The successful writer who later features in the story admits that Tiller "might be right" when Tiller calls him "a genius", and yet the riches enjoyed by genius seldom accord with literary preeminence but with bestsellerdom and the two are linked only rarely, compare e.g. the comparative economic status of J.K.Rowling (incredibly rich) and, say, Terry Southern (incredibly poor), or even John Kennedy Toole who, despairing of ever being published, killed himself before his 'Confederacy of Dunces' won all the prizes. If this film had been more accurate about the literary business, it would have been a better work of art. Incidentally, the odd relationship between the three main characters when they go public was very common in European high society, where rich old men often had young noble wives. It was socially permissible for them to have a young admirer in tow, as long as the niceties were observed. He was called a "cavaliere servente", and another literary notable, George Gordon Lord Byron, played this role for several years in 19th century Tuscany. Another odd literary set-up was the household of Aldous Huxley, where his wife, who was bisexual, would screen his young female admirers horizontally before ushering them into the Presence.

The Man From Elysian Fields starts out very promisingly, with snappy, literate dialogue and interesting characters, but by the end it sadly deteriorates into a 3rd rate soap opera, and an unbelievable one at that. Mick Jagger, whose character narrates, is perfect in his role as the seducer/defiler (a man of definite wealth and taste), and everyone else is capable enough; it just doesn't really work, unfortunately.

I am not really sure if I liked this movie or not. It started out okay but then somewhere it turned. Instead of trying to show what this man was doing to help his family it became sort of a morality tale but they wanted you to feel sorry for author. Why? He did it to himself I you will be able to tell. Yes bad things happened to him but he did it all to himself. The movie as a whole kept my interest and had some pretty good acting. I would watch this again but only under certain circumstances. This film is not a must see but is an okay watch.