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All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
Roger Dodger
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 out of 4
Review by Susan Granger
2½ stars out of 4
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First-time writer/director Dylan Kydd tackles Sex, the City and
Successful Seduction with this comic, acerbic portrait of a glib, arrogant
Manhattan bachelor introducing his dorky 16 year-old nephew from Ohio to the
intricacies of casual sexual conquest. Roger Swanson (Campbell Scott) is a
sleazy, cocky, misogynistic advertising copywriter who believes he knows
everything about manipulating women, bragging, "Words are my stock in trade."
(He got his "dodger" nickname as a child who could talk his way out of sticky
situations.) His impressionable nephew Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) is a novice at the
seduction game and eager to lose his virginity. Yet as he escorts Nick on an
enlightening, all-night excursion, Roger realizes he still has a lot to learn
about what women really want. Campbell Scott ("Dying Young") deftly succeeds at
humanizing a sad, sordid, repulsive fellow, while Jesse Eisenberg (brother of
child actress Hallie) conveys an innocent honesty in his awkwardly relentless
search for sex. As Roger's boss and soon-to-be ex-girlfriend, Isabella
Rossellini is wisely restrained, while Jennifer Beals ("Flashdance") and
Elizabeth Berkeley ("Showgirls"), as the female foils, offer some surprisingly
candid sex talk. Notable for writing witty dialogue filled with trenchant, if
perverse, psychological observations, Dylan Kydd juxtaposes photographer Joaquin
Baca-Asay's frantic, fast-paced hand-held camera work with slow, verbose,
intimate encounters, and the ending is artfully ambiguous. On the Granger Movie
Gauge of 1 to 10, "Roger Dodger" is a scathing, disturbing 6. Along with
Campbell Scott's memorable characterization, I suspect it will be remembered as
Dylan Kydd's distinctive debut that will serve as a creditable calling-card for
future ventures.
Copyright © 2002 Susan Granger
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