Rating: 
Summary: The view of Elysian Fields from Texas
Review: A surprising but wonderful job by Mick Jagger. My wife and I would never have believed he was this good at acting. A film you won't fully appreciate until it's over.
Rating: 
Summary: When A Man Loves A Woman, He'll Do Anything?
Review: Andy Garcia plays a surprisingly empathetic character in this for the most part very well-done movie. An unemployed writer who cannot support his family about whom he cares deeply, Garcia reluctantly becomes employed with Elysian Fields, a male escort service. But woe to him who makes a pact with the Devil. Garcia betrays those he most wanted to protect, his wife and child.There are some problems with the plot, however. For example, shouldn't Garcia's wife have had suspicions about a job that took him away from home most nights? I don't know what high-priced gigolos make these days, but shouldn't the wife also have questioned Garcia's ability to move into such a fine home so quickly. Finally, we find out about the death of the Pulitzer Price winning writer-- played by James Coburn-- when the screen goes white and two ceramic angels appear. That scene should have been edited out. On the other hand, there is some really fine acting here, particularly that of the handsome Garcia, how is totallly credible as a male escort. The performance of Mike Jagger was the surprise of the movie, however. I had no idea he could act. A very pleasant way to spent a couple of hours.
Rating:
Summary: More than "American Gigolo" meets "Sunset Blvd."
Review: At the beginning of "The Man from Elysian Fields," Byron Tiller (Andy Garcia) thinks he has reached the low point of his life. Having spent seven years writing a novel entitled "Hitler's Child" he finds his book has been marked down to $3.99 and can be found in the remainder bin. He gets to tell his wife, Dena (Julianna Margulies) that he has sold a book and garnered another few pennies of royalties, but we know that did not happen. Tiller has labored over his second book, about migrant workers, only to be told no one wants to read books about microcosms or with too much of that symbolism junk. But even this bad news is not the low point for Byron. That comes when he is approached by Luther Fox (Mick Jagger), who offers him employment at Elysian Fields, a male escort service. There are rich women who would pay to be escorted by someone with both looks and brains, and with no other prospects, Byron agrees to give it a try, giving credence to Fox's belief that, "A man can always support his family if he's willing to do what's necessary."
The fact that Byron is a writer struggling to be a success is a major part of this story, but we get a bit distracted by the fact that screenwriter Phillip Jayson Lasker (who wrote episodes of "Barney Miller" and "The Golden Girls"), is doing a twist on the familiar idea of someone turning to prostitution to survive. Such stories are almost always about young women out on their own, they are not about married men with a child at home (as "American Gigolo" amply proved). Byron is assigned to escort Andrea Alcott (Olivia Williams), the wife of the famous writer Tobias Alcott (James Coburn), who is terminally ill. Byron once took a class on Alcott's Pulitzer Prize winning writings and even bones up on his works to be prepared to charm his wife. Of course, Mrs. Alcott wants to be more than merely charmed, and if Byron is not surprised that he can go through with it, then he is surprised that Alcott walks in on the scene and does not seem bothered by another man being in his wife's bed.
What is going to happen is probably obvious to us, but Byron starting descending through the various levels of his personal hell with the best of intentions. But while he lies with Alcott's wife he tells lies to his own, and it is just a question of which is the bigger mistake. What makes it all worthwhile is not the paycheck that he gets from Elysian Fields, but the rapport he establishes with Alcott and the offer that would be the answer to all of Bryon's prayers. There are some definite homages here to "Sunset Blvd.," but "The Man from Elysian Fields" is about a different type of suicide. My main problem with the script is that when Byron finds out finds out exactly how he has been victimized there is a way out of it (specifically a way of proving that which cannot be proven). But director George Hickenlooper's film will find what relative redemption it can offer in a different way.
There are a couple of minor characters in this 2002 film that bring the storyline into sharp relief. Anjelica Huston plays Jennifer Adler, the one client that Fox still sees, and who provides him with a moment of brutal clarity that convinces him it is time for him to get out of this business. The other is Michael Des Barres as Nigel Halsey, the experience gigolo at Elysian Fields who teaches Bryon the ropes and who is forced to have his own moment of honest reflection when a question is asked by a most surprising client. What the two characters have in common is that while others may be visiting for a short while or a long time in this world, they will never be leaving. In our brief visit to these world we meet some interesting characters acting out a modern morality play.
Rating:
Summary: a 10 star movie-must see!!!
Review: Husband and I loved everything about this movie. Don't need to elaborate-read the previous reviews. Please rent, won't be disappointed
Rating:
Summary: Sirens of success, ghosts of failure
Review: I didn't go to this movie expecting that much, but I got a very nice surprise. George Hickenlooper's movie has some marvellously deft touchs which are only occasionally marred by heavy-handed directing. This movie is about sex and creativity and commerce. It's also about dealing with failure and while younger people may not feel like this is a particularly useful thing to comtemplate, most of us on the other side of J. Lo will recognize something of Byron Tiller, here played extremely well by Andy Garcia, in our own pasts (and one hopes, inshallah not our presents). Byron is a writer whose initial critical success is met with stunning commercial failure. There follows a long slow spiral into a creative desert where, shut out by the business-people who actually run the show, Byron is tempted (like St. Anthony in the Hieronymous Bosch painting) by a saturnine and suitably time-worn procureur, Luther Fox (played to a T by Mick Jagger). Fox offers Byron a way to make some money, and more importantly get closer to the creative action by providing intimate services to Andrea (Olivia Williams), the wife of a famous and eminently well-published novelist Tobias Alcott (James Coburn). Left to pick up after the emotional trainwreck is Byron's wife (Julianne Margulies) and Byron himself. The most effective parts of the movie are those which deal with the destructiveness of pride (or its second cousin, desire for success), the seductiveness of art and the way in which many many of us labor under the fear that we are not nearly as good as others think we are and that failure is just around the corner. Certainly this movie is a riff on Faust but one where willfull blindness plays an overwhelming role. And here one is confronted with what seems initially to be the biggest logical holes in the script: How can Jagger's louchly polished Fox still have illusions of emotional intimacy with his long-time trick, Jennifer (easily and finely played by Anjelica Huston)? How can an experienced writer like Byron NOT insist on a contract with Alcott when the two (in one of the movie's more predictable but nicely performed turns) decide to co-author Alcott's final novel? Still, the fact that in real life, otherwise intelligent people get conned all the time suggests that reality is much closer to the world that Hickenlooper brings to life so deftly than most of us would like to think. In fact, con men (like advertisers) know that the way to pull off a con is to promise the mark something that he or she already desires (the illusion of being inside the loop, the illusion of illicit gain, the illusion of imminent success) and Hickenlooper -and Olivia Williams' deliciously Macchiavellian Andrea know this too. We're left to wonder at the self-deludedness of both Fox and Byron both of whose faces crumble heart-breakingly as they realize the scams that they have led themselves into. I'm reminded here of the work of a couple of colleagues of mine who have worked with female sex workers and their male clients. What my colleagues report is that the men almost invariably cast their relationships with the prostitutes in other than economic terms, -for the men, it's about lust or virility or even companionship, or emotional attachment- while the women have no such illusions. Some of the best dramatic work in this movie comes from the interactions (always short, interestingly) between Garcia and Margulies and between Garcia and Jagger. The cameos with Huston and Jagger were gems also but lacked (as indeed they perhaps should have done) the intensity of the other interactions. Jagger in particular deserves a great deal of praise for his performance here, it is a delight to watch, and his role as interlocuter via voice over is handled well too. One gets the feeling that this a very good British movie in some ways which is certainly a point in its favor. Indeed, this movie would have been one of the most thought-provoking movies of the year for me if the ideas behind the movie had not been overwhelmed in places by hysterica; action: Byron ransacking the escorts' dressing room was one of these (does the red-blooded American male have to attack the furniture in order to show frustration or rage?), as was the contrived chance encounter between Byron and his wife in the hotel. Nevertheless, we can forgive Hickenlooper's hinting at a hopeful ending to Byron's story, even as it recycles the strange Protestant idea that suffering will lead a person of genius to creativity and thus redemption. Movies that have the courage to even creep close to the abyss of fear and failure that we older folk know is out there, deserve a certain amount of forgiveness for their sins and appreciation of their good points -at least in my book.
Rating:
Summary: Andy Garcia is great in this terrific film
Review: I have the chance to see this film in a cinema in Hong Kong. This film is so good that I am going to buy the DVD. Andy Garcia is truly a terrifc actor and he brings Bryon (his character in this film) to live. The other actors like James Coburn, Olivia Williams and Mick Jagger (yes he can act) in this film is excellent too. A good story, beautiful cinematography, well written dialogue, excellent acting make this film very enjoyable. Too bad, this film did not get the attention it deserves. So, I strongly recommend this DVD to everyone who missed it in the cinemas.
Rating: 
Summary: hmmmmm
Review: I saw this in the theater and thought, aside from the great acting turns by James Coburn and Mick, it was rather poor. The main plot conceit is that poor one-trick novelist Garcia has to turn to being a male escort because he cant sell his latest novel. Meanwhile, the guy keeps an OFFICE in an office building to write... something even most successful writers cant afford to do, and B) they TEACH! It never occurs to this guy to try teaching, when that's what EVERY other writer in the world does to make ends meet. THat it said, it wouldn't be so bad if Garcia, in his typical stylye, didn't once again insist on draining every ounce of frivilous fun from the proceedings, as if his acting would lose its dignity otherwise.
Rating:
Summary: Be Careful what You Wish for
Review: In Greek Mythology the Elysian Fields is the place where "the blessed" lived after death. In George Hickenlooper's film, "The Man from Elysian Fields" (Mick Jagger as Luther Fox) is an escort service owner who promises and I would assume delivers rich women to a place as blissful and full of happiness as said Elysian Fields.
Enter Byron Tiller (Andy Garcia) struggling writer, at the end of his rope financially and with a wife (Juliana Maguiles) and a child to support. Luther offers Byron the chance to make great money by escorting rich women. One of the women Byron escorts is Andrea Alcott (Olivia Williams) wife of a very famous and prolific author, Tobias Alcott. Tobias (James Coburn), in his 70's and very ill asks Byron to help him co-author a novel and Byron jumps at, what he feels will be, the chance of a professional lifetime. The only catch is Byron must continue to "date" Andrea and thus sets the scene for Byron's downfall both professional and personal.
Byron Tiller, as played by Andy Garcia, is a tormented, fragmented yet proud man: he does not like what he has to do in order to care for his family yet he feels he has no other opportunities available to him. Garcia plays Tiller with the same intensity and vulnerability that he exhibited in "When a Man Loves a Woman." In a way, he grows to love Andrea but knows it is wrong for he truly loves his wife. He flings himself headfirst into the co-authoring project yet he knows it takes him away from his wife and child who need more than just the money he gives them to live on. His ego supplants his common sense and he ultimately has to pay the consequences. Garcia does a masterful job making Byron's personal and professional conflicts real and understandable.
Olivia Williams, so good in "The Sixth Sense" plays Andrea Tobias very quietly with all her feelings and emotions intact. She is fascinating to watch. Watch her eyes and body language in the final scene with Byron. It's classic movie acting. Juliana Marguiles, James Coburn and Mick Jagger do excellent work also.
In many ways, "The Man from Elysian Fields" is like the very old Faust legend: the man who sells his soul to the devil for riches and success. And like Faust, Byron Tiller must also pay for his success with the things he holds most dear.
Rating:
Summary: If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
Review: In the film, "The Man from Elysian Fields," Andy Garcia plays the morose married writer, Byron Tiller. Tiller's one book "Hitler's Child, " isn't exactly a best-seller, and now he's almost finished book number two. Tiller's publisher won't even publish this second book. Tiller's wife, Dena (Julianna Margulies) is so unshakeable in her belief that both the book and her husband will be whoopingly successful, that Byron can't break the news that there will be no second book--no advance--no great writing career. Desperation leads Byron to Elysian Fields--an elite male escort agency that just happens to be conveniently located next to his drab little office. The owner of the agency, the fascinating Luther Fox (Mick Jagger) offers to provide Byron with work, and so Byron accepts. His first assignment, as luck and Hollywood would have it, is to accompany porcelain beauty, Andrea Alcott, for a night on the town. Now Andrea is married to Byron's idol--popular author Tobias Alcott. Byron finds the situation intriguing and delectable enough to leave moral scruples behind as he fills in for Tobias in the bedroom too, but things are not quite as they seem, and Byron has a nasty illogical lesson waiting for him. The film possessed many allegorical elements--Elysian Fields is, of course, in mythology, the place where souls go after death. Luther Fox is certainly a believable satiny evil Satan--by offering Byron an evening with the wife of a literary giant, he tempts him into selling his soul. Supernatural elements are weaved into the story and the set designs, but the film doesn't seem to know quite what to do with the layers of meaning created in the plot. So instead, the film disintergrates nonsensically into codswallop--sarcastic, world-weary, elegant Luther Fox turns into a pathetic love-lorn reject, and Byron's hell is laced with the promise of Hollywood happy endings. A sad disappointment indeed--why bother to lace the story with allegory and then suddenly switch gears half way through? Splendid performance from Mick Jagger--he redeemed this film for me--displacedhuman--Amazon Reviewer.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Poorly Written
Review: It is ironic that this movie should pertain to the subject of writing, as it is very poorly written.
A MICROCOSM of this can be seen at the end, where the author reads his supposedly "breakthrough" novel: anybody over an amateur level readily recognizes what he is reading as extremely poor, extremely amateurish writing. It is also interesting that John Grisham is referred to once in the movie as a paragon of good writing--as though "fast food" writing ever qualified as very good intellectual reading meat.
The stupidity of the protagonist in not procuring a contract for his services strains credulity.
The likelihood that a well-known author would acquiesce to co-author his last book strains credulity.
The very stilted dialogue of this movie strains credulity.
Mick Jagger did a great job acting, but it's not enough to save this stinker.
The guy who wrote this movie neither understands good writing nor was capable of it.
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