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Man in the Chair

Man in the Chair (2007)

tomatometer

46

Average Rating: 5.1/10
Reviews Counted: 35
Fresh: 16 | Rotten: 19

A committed performance from Christopher Plummer can't save Man in the Chair's troubled and cliched script.

58

Average Rating: 5.7/10
Critic Reviews: 12
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 5

A committed performance from Christopher Plummer can't save Man in the Chair's troubled and cliched script.

audience

70

liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 883

My Rating

Movie Info

A young man learns something about making his fantasies into reality from an older man who has already been there in this coming-of-age drama. Cameron (Michael Angarano) is a teenage film buff living in Los Angeles who dreams of making movies himself someday, an ambition that doesn't impress his parents very much. Cameron doesn't have many friends beyond fellow outcast Murphy (Joshua Boyd), and wealthy and popular classmate Brett (Taber Schroeder) takes great pleasure in making Cameron's life

PG-13, 1 hr. 47 min.

Drama, Comedy

Michael Schroeder

Apr 1, 2008

Outsider Films

All Critics (37) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (16) | Rotten (19)

By salvaging a troubled script with deep, committed, touching portrayals, Plummer and Walsh help prove Schroeder's points about how Hollywood isn't just the province of the rich, young and pretty.

December 21, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | Comment
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The movie works so hard at juggling its clichés that it fails to generate interest in its story.

December 21, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Though they can't transcend writer-director Michael Schroeder's pointed contrivances, the actors tap into something achingly true in this valentine to Hollywood's below-the-line crafts people and society's castoffs.

December 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | Comment
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

[An] elegant documentary.

December 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | Comment
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A ramshackle but likeable story

December 10, 2007 Comment
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Once its machinery is humming, it settles into a soothing fable of a last hurrah.

December 7, 2007 Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The subject is honorable, but this plea for the elderly is too cliche-ridden and manipuative

August 7, 2011 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

It's hard to imagine anyone other than Christopher Plummer taking on the role of Flash Madden.

August 7, 2008 Full Review Source: JWR | Comment

By the end it's lost any edge and is as soft and unappealing as a geriatric incontinence pad.

January 24, 2008 Full Review Source: Sky Movies | Comment
Sky Movies

Ambitious, heartfelt but, Plummer's excellent performance aside, dramatically lightweight and unconvincing.

January 24, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

A fair-to-middling contemporary fantasy drama that, despite its surfeit of flashy effects, is mildly charming in the way it addresses the injustice of old folk having to live out their final years in decrepit homes.

January 24, 2008 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

Watchable drama with a strong performance from Christopher Plummer, though the script often feels simplistic and can't quite manage the emotional punch the story deserves.

January 24, 2008 Full Review Source: ViewLondon | Comment
ViewLondon

A movie about movies and the people who love them.

January 23, 2008 Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope | Comment
Laramie Movie Scope

This attempt to make a film is about a guy who is attempting to make a film.

January 22, 2008 Full Review Source: Cinema Signals | Comment
Cinema Signals

Too slight and formulaic to amount to much.

January 22, 2008 Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | Comment
One Guy's Opinion

Man In The Chair feels a bit like a high school movie project, which is appropriate since that's exactly what it's about.

January 1, 2008 Full Review Source: BBC | Comment

Overdirected and underwritten, this litany of Hallmark Channel tropes and button-pushing sentiment uses Tinseltown treacle to gussy up an otherwise forgettable message movie about humane treatment for the elderly.

December 13, 2007 Full Review Source: Time Out New York | Comment
Time Out New York

A film that probably never wouldn't have seen the light of a projector if it wasn't for some kind of "Let's get Actor X that long-deserved Oscar" grab.

December 12, 2007 Full Review Source: FilmJerk.com | Comment
FilmJerk.com

If you have to see this film for one reason, see it for Plummer...

December 11, 2007 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed | Comment
Cinema Crazed
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Man in the Chair

I DESPERATELY wanted to love this movie. Such a sweet premise. Indie flick that's barely anyone has seen...and WOOOOOOOBOYWOOOOOOOOOODAMNWOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHhMIGHT MIGHTY MERCY ME!!!It sucked.Christopher Plummer does a fine job, but he's the ONLY redeeming aspect of this movie.First of all, why on God's green Earth did

February 27, 2009
QueenCityFilms
Karl Vanderhoof

Super Reviewer

WINNER of FIVE 2007 Poppies including Best Director (Michael Schroeder), Best Actor (Christopher Plummer, co-winner with Patrick Fugit of Wristcutters), Best Supporting Actor (M. Emmet Walsh). Superb character drama about a young aspiring filmmaker and the embittered old stagehand he persuades to help him with his

December 30, 2007

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