''A Family Man'' (previous title ''The Headhunter's Calling'') is a 2016 American

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film directed by Mark Williams, in his

directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many filmmakers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

, and written by Bill Dubuque. The film tells the story of Dane Jensen, a Corporate Recruiter from Chicago, who must balance his career aspirations and his increasingly complex family life. The film stars

Gerard Butler Gerard James Butler (born 13 November 1969) is a Scottish actor and film producer. After studying law, he turned to acting in the mid-1990s with small roles in productions such as '' Mrs Brown'' (1997), the James Bond film ''Tomorrow Never ...

Willem Dafoe William James "Willem" Dafoe ( ; born July 22, 1955) is an American actor. Known for his prolific career portraying diverse roles in both mainstream and arthouse films, he is the recipient of various accolades including a Volpi Cup Award for ...

Anupam Kher Anupam Kher (born 7 March 1955) is an Indian actor, director and producer who works primarily in Hindi cinema. In a career spanning over four decades, he has acted in more than 540 films. A veteran of Indian cinema, Kher is recipient of two Na ...

Alfred Molina Alfred Molina (born Alfredo Molina; 24 May 1953) is a British and American actor. He is known for his leading roles and character actor roles on the stage and screen. In a career spanning over five decades he has received a Drama Desk Award ...

Alison Brie Alison Brie Schermerhorn (born December 29, 1982) is an American actress, writer, and producer. She earned recognition for playing Trudy Campbell in the drama series ''Mad Men'' (2007–2015), and had her Breakthrough role, breakthrough starring ...

, and

Gretchen Mol Gretchen Mol (born November 8, 1972) is an American actress. She is known for her role as Gillian Darmody in the HBO series '' Boardwalk Empire'' (2010–2014). She also appeared in the films ''Rounders'' (1998), ''Celebrity'' (1998), ''The Thir ...

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

began on October 26, 2015 in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. It screened at the

2016 Toronto International Film Festival The 41st annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 8 to 18 September 2016. The first announcement of films to be screened at the festival took place on 26 July. Almost 400 films were shown. Awards The festival's final awards were ...

Plot

Dane Jensen is a successful Chicago-based corporate headhunter who works at the Blackridge Recruitment agency. His life revolves around closing deals in a survival-of-the-fittest boiler room. As the film opens Jensen is shown to be focused on his job, but he also tries to be a family man. His boss Ed Blackridge is offering him a promotion that will lead to him controlling the company. To secure it, he must beat his ambitious rival Lynn Wilson's numbers. Jensen's focus on the job becomes a detriment to his family. His wife Elise asks for more of his time with them. Jensen tries to spend some quality time with his oldest child Ryan, to prepare him for the adult world. Believing Ryan to be on the verge of

childhood obesity Childhood obesity is a condition where excess adipose tissue, body fat negatively affects a child's health or well-being. As methods to determine body fat directly are difficult, the diagnosis of obesity is often based on Body mass index, BMI. ...

, he takes him jogging in the morning. Jensen notices that his son is constantly complaining of fatigue and has bruises he can't explain. Jensen works harder and spends more time at the office to try to get the promotion, which does not sit right with Elise. She asks him to prioritize. Ryan is later diagnosed with

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

, which shocks them all. Jensen spends more time with his son, which causes his numbers — a prerequisite of the promotion — to drop. Meanwhile, Lynn takes the opportunity to tap into his clients and scores. The film culminates with Ryan falling into a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to Nociception, respond normally to Pain, painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal Circadian rhythm, sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate ...

before getting better, and Jensen losing his job at Ed's firm, due to not turning a profit. The seemingly strict Ed releases him from his non-compete agreement. Jensen starts his own company working from home and is now invested with his family.

Cast

as Dane Jensen, Elise's husband and Lauren and Ryan's father *

as Elise Jensen, Dane's wife and Lauren and Ryan's mother *

as Lynn Wilson, Dane's rival *

as Dr. Savraj Singh *

Dustin Milligan Dustin Wallace Milligan (born July 28, 1985) is a Canadian actor best known as Jack Snowman in ''Hot Frosty'', Ted Mullens on ''Schitt's Creek'', Ethan Ward on ''90210 (TV series), 90210'', Tom Cummings in ''X Company'', and Josh Carter on ''Ruth ...

as Sumner Firestone *

Maxwell Jenkins Maxwell Jenkins (born May 3, 2005) is an American actor and musician, who is known for his roles in ''Lost in Space (2018 TV series), Lost in Space'', ''A Family Man'', ''Sense8'', ''Dear Edward (TV series), Dear Edward'', and ''Arcadian (film), ...

as Ryan Jensen, Dane and Elise's son and Lauren's brother *

as Lou Wheeler *

as Ed Blackridge, Dane's boss *

Julia Butters Julia Butters, is an American actress. She is known for her role in the film ''Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'' (2019), for which she was nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Young Actor/Actress, and for her role as Reggie Fabel ...

as Lauren Jensen, Dane and Elise's daughter and Ryan's sister *

Mimi Kuzyk Marilyn Iris Kuzyk (born February 21, 1952) is a Canadian actress. Early life Kuzyk was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba to Fred and Kay Kuzyk, both of whom were Ukrainian immigrants, and received her early education at the Immaculate Heart of Mary ...

as Bernadine * Dwayne Murphy as Antoine, Ryan's nurse *

Kathleen Munroe Kathleen Munroe (born April 9, 1982) is a Canadian actress. Munroe was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and currently resides in Los Angeles. She attended high school at Westdale Secondary School in Hamilton, and studied cinema at the University of T ...

as Toni *

Romaine Waite Romaine Waite is a Canadian actor. His most notable works include ''The Mist'' and '' Star Trek: Discovery''. Early life Waite was born in Montego Bay, Jamaica. He moved to Canada and spent his adolescent years in Brampton, Ontario. Career Wai ...

as Recruiter #2

Production

In November 2012, Bill Dubuque's first script ''The Headhunter's Calling'' was revealed. On September 2, 2015, it was announced that

would star in the family drama film ''The Headhunter's Calling'', to be directed by Mark Williams, who would make his debut. Williams and Butler would produce the film along with

Alan Siegel Alan Siegel (born August 26, 1938) is the CEO of Siegelvision, a brand identity consultancy. He is the founder and chairman emeritus of the global brand strategy firm Siegel+Gale. Early life Alan Siegel was born to Eugene and Ruth Siegel in New ...

Voltage Pictures Voltage Pictures is an American film production and distribution company founded by Nicolas Chartier in 2005. It has assembled over 180 motion pictures, earning the company a total of two Golden Globe Awards and nine Academy Awards. Recent f ...

would handle the international sales for the film.

Nicolas Chartier Nicolas Chartier () is a French film producer. In 2005, he founded Voltage Pictures, a Los Angeles–based film production and distribution company, and is its CEO. Early life Chartier, during his time as a Disneyland Paris janitor, sold his ...

, Craig Flores, and Patrick Newall would also be producing the film.

on the film began on October 26, 2015 in

. Filming began in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

on December 13, 2015 and it wrapped up on December 18.

Release

The film was released on July 28, 2017, by

Vertical Entertainment Vertical (formerly Vertical Entertainment) is an American independent film distribution company founded by producers Rich Goldberg and Mitch Budin in 2012. Vertical releases films across all mediums, including theatrical, video on demand, physica ...

Critical response

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has an approval rating of 16% based on 25 reviews, with an average rating of 4.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''A Family Man'' has some worthy ideas, but they're bungled in a middle-of-the-road melodrama populated by thinly sketched -- and occasionally downright unlikeable -- characters." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 21 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Family Man, A 2016 films American drama films 2016 drama films Films produced by Gerard Butler Films shot in Toronto Films shot in Chicago Films with screenplays by Bill Dubuque Vertical (film company) films 2016 directorial debut films Films scored by Mark Isham 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language drama films