‘Fantasy Life’ Movie Review: Amanda Peet Shines In Truthful, Low-Key Slice-Of-Life
Photo from Greenwich Entertainment
From Jeremy Kibler
Fantasy Life very easily could have been a thirtysomething Jewish guy’s fantasy, but it’s more authentically observed than that. Writer-director-star Matthew Shear makes his directorial debut with this low-key, modest slice-of-life, a film with a seriocomic tone not unlike films by Nicole Holofcener, Ira Sachs, or Noah Baumbach, and a warm, perceptive human touch.
Prone to panic attacks, law school dropout Sam (played by Shear) has one after getting fired as his paralegal job from a law firm. Following an appointment with his psychiatrist (Judd Hirsch), he’s asked by the secretary, also the doctor’s wife (Andrea Martin), to babysit her three granddaughters for their musician son, David (a charmingly slimy Alessandro Nivola). As Sam becomes the family’s nanny, he also gets close to the girls’ mother, Dianne (Amanda Peet), an actress whose career just isn’t where she wants it to be. Everything comes to a halt when the whole family takes a trip to Martha’s Vineyard.
Shear has clearly written what he knows, having conceived the film from the years he worked as a “manny” for Manhattan families while working through his mental-health journey. As Sam, Shear is an unlikely leading man; he’s awkward and neurotic but kind of charming. It can be presumptuous for a young filmmaker to couple himself with an older beautiful woman—it’s very Woody Allen or reminiscent of Cooper Raiff in Cha Cha Real Smooth—but Shear doesn’t really make Sam the focus, allowing Dianne to have her own arc.
Amanda Peet is appealing as always, fearlessly playing a wealthy but insecure woman who still feels like a victim. There’s no judgment or pity toward Dianne, and Peet plays her with a delicate vulnerability and heartbreak. In one scene, Dianne is out with her daughters, father, and Sam, and an excited fan asks for an autograph, only to realize that the fan has confused her for actress Lake Bell; Peet plays this humbling moment so perfectly, as she does every scene. Even the moments between Peet and Shear are sweet without coming across as creepy, like an early scene of them together where Dianne and Sam are on the couch, watching an episode of Battlestar Galactica and each eating a bowl of granola Sam made. For once, Sam seems to be the one person who really sees Dianne.
Fantasy Life is one of those films that’s simultaneously about nothing and about everything. It may not add up to a lot, but as told over the course of all four seasons, the film still gets its arms around a lot. The supporting cast is impressive, stuffed with character actors galore. Besides Hirsch and Martin, there’s Bob Balaban and Jessica Harper as Dianne’s parents; Zosia Mamet, in one scene as Sam’s roommate’s girlfriend; and Holland Taylor, as Dianne’s therapist, in the film’s clear-eyed, sneakily moving and deeply relatable final moments. There is a smallness to Fantasy Life that should make it feel slight and inconsequential, but this is an empathetic and truthful indie gem.
Rating: 3.5/5
Fantasy Life is currently in select theaters.
