Roger Dodger won the Best Narrative Feature in competition at the 2002 Tribeca Film Fest.
Writer-director Dylan Kidd claims that his film owes its existence to the gifted and generous actor Campbell Scott, whom he approached in a café in Greenwich Village.
Scott, who also exec-produced this indie, stars as the eponymous Roger, a successful New York ad man and self-proclaimed womanizer.
The tale begins with Roger out for drinks with his co-workers and demonstrating his verbal gifts. “Words are my stock in trade,” he boasts.
But as soon as he learns that his boss, Joyce (Isabella Rossellini), wants to end their sexual affair, Roger switches his attention to his teenaged nephew, Nick (Jesse Eisenberg), who suddenly shows up unannounced.
In town for an interview at Columbia, Nick wants Roger to take him out and give him a crash course on women. Soon the pair is out carousing, but when they run into Andrea (Elizabeth Berkley) and her friend, Sophie (Jennifer Beals), Roger discovers that despite Nick’s sexual desperation, the teen is unsuited to Roger’s womanizing mode. Nick is a sweet and sensitive boy, while Roger proves to be a misogynist.
Turning point in the relationship occurs when Roger decides to crash a party Joyce is throwing that night, and brings Nick along.
A highlight of 2002’s indie cinema, Roger Dodger still feels like a first feature, but it provides a vehicle to Campbell Scott (Son of George C. Scott) who turns a surprisingly multi-nuanced and subtle performance in a role that in the hands of other actors would have become utterly unsympathetic.
MPAA: R
Release date November 1, 2002
Running time: 104 minutes
