“A Man in Full” review: Jeff Daniels chews the scenery in this laughable drama
Netflix’s six-part adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s novel is a southern-fried mess.
When Tom Wolfe released A Man in Full — the highly anticipated follow-up to The Bonfire of the Vanities — in 1998, most reviews couldn’t help but marvel at the sheer sprawl of the 742-page novel’s narrative. The New York Times noted that “the story of A Man in Full does not really lend itself to simple summary,” while Time magazine described it as being “swollen” with subplots. Former Entertainment Weekly editor Mark Harris begged Hollywood to “spare us the terrible film that this juicily unadaptable tome will inevitably become.”
Mark Hill/Netflix Jeff Daniels and Sarah Jones in ‘A Man in Full’
To its credit, Hollywood waited more than a quarter century before bestowing its adaptation of Wolfe’s “unadaptable” work on the public. But Netflix’s A Man in Full — created by megaproducer David E. Kelley and starring the usually unassailable Jeff Daniels — is still awful. Even with six hours of runtime to play with, the limited series fails to corral Wolfe’s far-reaching tale of money, class, and racial justice into anything coherent, instead ping-ponging between over-the-top soap opera and somber social commentary.
Charlie Croker (Daniels) is a pillar of Atlanta society, a former Georgia Tech football star-turned-filthy-rich real estate developer whose ego looms over the ATL in the form of a garish skyscraper called Croker Concourse. Jetting around on his private plane with his much younger second wife, Serena (Sarah Jones), on his arm, Charlie Croker is untouchable — that is, until a pugnacious banker named Harry Zale (Bill Camp) and his self-loathing loan officer, Raymond Peepgrass (Tom Pelphrey), come to collect the $800 million Charlie owes their institution. Not only must Charlie’s lawyer, Roger Hill (Aml Ameen), help his boss out of his financial mess, he also finds himself representing Conrad Hensely (Jon Michael Hill) — the husband of Charlie’s assistant, Jill (Chanté Adams) — who is arrested for defending himself against a violent police officer (Scott Daniel Johnson) during a traffic stop.
Mark Hill/Netflix Tom Pelphrey and Bill Camp in ‘A Man in Full’
“Whole lot of huffing and puffing and bluffing going on,” scoffs Harry Zale, during one of his contentious meetings with Charlie. It’s an apt summary for A Man in Full, which uses its central trio to explore several facets of modern masculinity: Charlie, a toxic titan of industry; Raymond, a milquetoast striver; and Roger, who traded moral purpose for a high paycheck. Fans of Wolfe’s novel should be prepared for several deviations from the original — especially with Conrad’s story, which takes a far more conventional path — but plenty of plot points remain intact. Charlie still brings important guests (Josh Pais and Andrea Frankle) on an ill-fated trip to the horse-breeding barn at his plantation; he still gets those massive, saddlebag-shaped sweat stains on his dress shirts when under pressure; and his bum knee still needs surgery. Raymond, meanwhile, remains entangled in a legal fight over child support with Sirja (Eline Powell), a Finnish bombshell he impregnated.
Kelley’s changes seem aimed at consolidating some of the subplots in Wolfe’s tale, which is understandable. But the individual elements of the story aren’t really the problem with A Man in Full. Instead, it’s the challenge of translating Wolfe’s singular style of prose — vivid, elaborate, effusive, ornamental — which thrives on the page but can devolve into cartoonish farce on screen. Matching the spirit and vigor of Wolfe’s words creates a temptation to go big. Real big. This manifests in many ways, including several Kelley-approved stylistic flourishes, like on-the-nose needle drops and comically histrionic sex scenes. (Thomas Schlamme and Regina King direct three episodes each.) But mostly, it comes through in the leading man’s scenery-chewing performance.
Mark Hill/Netflix Jerrika Hinton, Chanté Adams, Aml Ameen and Jon Michael Hill in ‘A Man in Full’
Daniels, sporting an atrocious, two-toned hairpiece, belts his lines in an accent that lands somewhere between Foghorn Leghorn and Gomer Pyle. (Yes, I’m old.) It can be funny in small doses — as when he and Crump go at each other in the bank’s conference room, the buttons on their dress shirts straining as they shout and glower across the table with stormy brows — but six hours is about five doses too many. Pelphrey, his handsome features poorly disguised by a greasy side-part and oversized glasses, smirks and sniggers with exaggerated enthusiasm at Charlie’s misfortune when he’s not bursting into fits of impotent rage. William Jackson Harper puts his back into the role of Mayor Wes Jordan, a charismatic and ambitious political prodigy, but can’t quite summon the calculating menace required for his particular storyline.
It pains me to inform you that Diane Lane and Lucy Liu are also in A Man in Full — only because the series thoroughly, shamefully wastes them on underdeveloped characters. Lane plays Charlie’s first wife, Martha, who fills her divorced days rattling around an empty mansion and doing step aerobics before entering into an extremely improbable flirtation with Raymond Peepgrass. Liu is Martha’s friend Joyce Newman, the polished CEO of a successful beauty brand who gets dragged into Charlie’s dealings with Mayor Jordan. Still, she only has a handful of substantive scenes. Lucy freaking Liu! She deserves better. I understand Kelley didn’t set out to make A Man in Full and the Women Who Hate Him, but after spending six hours with Charlie Croker, I can say with certainty that he should have. Grade: D
A Man in Full premieres Thursday, May 2, on Netflix.
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