Metropolitan Movie Review

Christopher Eigeman looks and sounds like he's out of another time, like you'd find him at one of Jay Gatsby's garden parties immaculately tailored, supplying Scott AND Zelda Fitzgerald with literary inspiration for dozens of short stories. He was in Whit Stillman's first two pictures and Noah Baumbach's debut film, but I only see him in Pacific Bell commercials these days. Even though he's great in them, I'd rather see him at the movies. Edward Clements as Tom Townsend runs into a group of young socialites who need an extra male. Even though he's out of their league, he joins them and, through guarded responses, wins their acceptance. Eigeman as Nick shows Tom the ropes and he's in. The lives of the socialites really do seem as if they belong to an earlier era, but Stillman's dialogue is so bright and witty (especially as delivered by Eigeman) that most of the 98 minutes whizzes by, until Nick drops out of the plot. I had to wait four years to see Eigeman again, co-starring with Taylor Nichols in Stillman's Barcelona. What's the matter with movie producers these days, anyway? Don't they recognize a star when they see one? Eigeman was scheduled to appear in a weekly television series by the spring of 1999.

1990 (PG-13) 98m/C Carolyn Farina, Edward Clements, Taylor Nichols, Christopher Eigeman, Allison Rutledge-Parisi, Dylan Hundley, Isabel Gillies, Bryan Leder, Will Kempe, Elizabeth Thompson; D: Whit Stillman; W: Whit Stillman; C: John Thomas; M: Mark Suozzo. Independent Spirit Awards ‘91: Best First Feature; New York Film Critics Awards ‘90: Best Director (Stillman); Nominations: Academy Awards ‘90: Best Original Screenplay. VHS, LV