Roger Dodger

Starring: Campbell Scott, Isabella Rossellini

RS: 3of 4 Stars

2002 Drama

Campbell Scott swings at one of the year's juiciest roles and knocks it out of the park. Adman Roger Swanson is a nightmare vision of the New York bachelor: a charming, acid-tongued predator. His boss (Isabella Rossellini) has dumped him, leaving Roger particularly bitter when he decides to help his sixteen-year-old nephew, Nick (the excellent Jesse Eisenberg), lose the teen stigma of virginity. During a frenzied night in Manhattan, Roger and Jesse hook up with two happy-hour babes (Jennifer Beals and Elizabeth Berkley), crash Roger's boss's party and venture into an underground sex club. Roger's mouth never stops, and Scott gives every line a bruising comic snap.

Credit writer-director Dylan Kidd for creating a wild ride of a movie that keeps throwing fastballs, including a hilarious coda in which Roger pops up at Nick's school. Unlike Roger, Kidd's film refuses to dodge the harsher truths.

PETER TRAVERS
(October 31, 2002)