Robert Forster's tour-de-force performance, along with Daniel M. Cohen's sensitive direction and subtly shaded screenplay, brings rare heft to this mentor/protégé buddy film.
Robert Forster's tour-de-force performance, along with Daniel M. Cohen's sensitive direction and subtly shaded screenplay, brings rare heft to this mentor/protégé buddy film.
A veteran salesman is forced to make way for a young drummer and has some improbable adventures along the way in this comedy-drama. Eddie (Robert Forster) has worked for over 30 years as a travelling jewelry salesman, but after he's stricken with a heart attack, he discovers he's no longer eligible for insurance. Given the fact that he routinely travels with a stash of goods worth up to a million dollars, this development means that he's going to have to give up working on the road. Bobby
(Donnie Wahlberg) is the young salesman who is first in line to take over Eddie's route. Though Eddie doesn't think much of reckless Bobby, he takes him on the road to show him the ropes. As they spend some time together, Eddie takes a liking to Bobby, who wants to show Eddie his gratitude for teaching him how to sell in the big leagues. Bobby takes him to a combination roadhouse and brothel for an evening's entertainment, but things get sticky when jewel thieves track the two men to the club. Diamond Men also features Bess Armstrong and Jasmine Guy as a pair of working girls Eddie and Bobby meet in the course of their adventures. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Sacrificing excellent characters to an ultimately lame payoff, Diamond Men's potential as a diamond in the rough turn out to be more 'rough' than 'diamond.'
What this film does, which other genre movies often neglect to do, is remind us that we are all people who don't always act the way you'd think we should.
In "Diamond Men", Eddie Miller(Robert Forster) has been a traveling diamond salesman for the past thirty years in central Pennsylvania but because of a recent heart attack, he cannot be insured anymore. The only chance he has to keep his job is to train his successor, Bobby Walker(Donnie Wahlberg), a brash newcomer,
whose only experience is maintaining vending machines. "Diamond Men" is a modest slice-of-life movie that is as much about respecting the traditions of the past and small towns, as it is about not fearing what will come next. And it is helped enormously by a splendid performance by Robert Forster. But I don't know how I feel about the ending.
January 27, 2007
Walter M.
Super Reviewer
A little uneven in tone and pace, but made largely enjoyable by a well written script and Robert Forster.
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