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A Man in Full ★★★½
Netflix
A totem of the Clinton era (Bill, that is), Tom Wolfe’s A Man in Full was published in 1988. It was a cross-section of crises, with point-of-view chapters from Atlanta residents spanning white and rich to black and incarcerated. This Netflix adaptation is from the eternally productive David E Kelley, who back in 1998 had Ally McBeal and The Practice airing. Kelley, now better known for Big Little Lies and, well, The Undoing, has a quarter-century of cultural baggage to accommodate. His solution is satire.
Jeff Daniels as Charlie Croker, a Georgia native with college football fame, a blond second wife and a mountain of debt, in A Man in Full.Credit: Netflix
First seen being serenaded by Shania Twain at his 60th birthday party, property developer Charlie Croker (Jeff Daniels) is a Georgia native, complete with college football fame, a blond second wife, and over US$1 billion of bank loans at risk of default. His exchanges with the executive trying to foreclose, Harry Zale (Bill Camp), are macho man ludicrous; the insults are grandiloquent and then profane as the pair try to assert big dog ascendancy.
The jury has long been in on whether we’re trying to rehabilitate a tycoon, so Daniels plays Charlie with excess virility, self-importance, and a sense of noble responsibility. The other storylines flow from him: his first wife, Martha (Diane Lane), is trying to find her place in the world, mayor Wes Jordan (William Jackson Harper) needs Charlie’s help smearing an opponent, and his corporate lawyer, Roger White (Ami Ameen), has been deputised to help the husband of Charlie’s secretary, a black man arrested for assaulting a white police officer.
The six-part series is set in a version of today – no MAGA hats – where America’s fault lines are taken seriously, but there’s daft folly to Charlie’s corporate machinations. When he takes a potential white knight investor to his quail-hunting estate – “it’s an eco-lodge,” Charlie insists – conservative and liberal attitudes collide. Half the episodes are directed by actor turned filmmaker Regina King (One Night in Miami), who brings a contemporary perspective to Wolfe’s reportage.
There’s more than a touch of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’s Big Daddy to Charlie, which Daniels savours in his full-throated performance, but Kelley traditionally leans to melodrama over farce. A Man in Full tries to accommodate the two approaches, amping up Charlie and getting serious in the jail and courtroom as Roger discovers realities he’s mostly avoided. It’s a zesty, concise limited series – I cannot emphasise enough how much I appreciated episodes that were just 45 minutes in length. Unlike Charlie, David E Kelley is willing to change with the times.
The Idea of You ★★½
Amazon Prime
Nicholas Galitzine and Anne Hathaway in The Idea of You. The pair bonded over their mutual love of Arsenal football club.
A divorced 40-year-old mother, Los Angeles gallerist Solene Marchand (Anne Hathaway), chaperones her teenage daughter to the Coachella music festival, where she meets cute boy band superstar Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine). The 24-year-old singer is attracted to her and makes it clear, and Solene relents in this warm-hearted romantic comedy. Is this a female fantasy story? Absolutely. Is that a problem? No. Men have an entire fantasy genre. They’re called action films.