''Paper Man'' (also known as ''Unlikely Hero'') is a 2009 American

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

comedy drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

film written and directed by Kieran and Michele Mulroney. The film stars

Jeff Daniels Jeffrey Warren Daniels (born February 19, 1955) is an American actor. He is known for his work on stage and screen playing diverse characters switching between comedy and drama. He is the recipient of several accolades, including two Primetime ...

as a struggling writer who relies on a childhood imaginary friend to help him with life decisions,

Emma Stone Emily Jean "Emma" Stone (born November 6, 1988) is an American actress and film producer. Her accolades include two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2017, she was the world's highest-paid actr ...

as a 17-year-old high school student who befriends him, and

Ryan Reynolds Ryan Rodney Reynolds (born October 23, 1976) is a Canadian and American actor, producer and businessman. Known for starring in comedic and superhero films, he was the List of highest-paid film actors, world's second-highest-paid actor in 202 ...

as the imaginary Captain Excellent. The film was developed at the Sundance Filmmakers’ Labs.

Plot

Richard is a failed novelist who still talks to his imaginary superhero friend, Captain Excellent. At the urging of his wife Claire, Richard has moved to a

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

beach community for the winter season in order to overcome his writer's block. There, Richard meets 17-year-old Abby, whom he sees while riding his rustic bike around town. He sees her light a fire in the trash can for no apparent reason. Richard hires her as a weekly babysitter even though he has no children. When she shows up to her babysitting job and he reveals to her that he has no kids, Abby seems completely fine with it and Richard decides to spend his time at the pier talking to Captain Excellent, who insists that Richard can never make a correct decision without his help. When Richard comes home he is awed by the discovery that Abby has made soup while he was away. He envies her having made this with her hands, as he has trouble using his hands to make anything. He hires her again for the same time next week, despite Captain Excellent's warning that it will only lead to bad things. Richard and Abby form a tenuous father-daughter-like relationship. Abby tells Richard about the death of her twin sister, Amy, while Richard confides in her about his failing marriage. Meanwhile, Christopher, Abby's imaginary friend since Amy's death, watches her relationship with Richard grow, and though he feels neglected by Abby, all he wants is for her to be happy, no matter what that means for him. Richard hosts a drunken party for local high school students and is punched by Abby's boyfriend. The party ends, the house a mess, and Abby and Richard fall asleep together on a couch, where Claire finds them the next morning. She and Richard fight, with him childishly blaming her for the fact that they had never had children and that his family name will die with him, though as she reveals, it had been his decision not to have kids. Abby and Richard lose their imaginary friends, and Richard sends Abby a note before returning to try to rebuild his relationship with Claire.

Cast

as Richard Dunn *

Lisa Kudrow Lisa Valerie Kudrow ( ; born July 30, 1963) is an American actress. She rose to international fame for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the American television sitcom ''Friends'', which aired from 1994 to 2004. The series earned her Primetime Emmy A ...

as Claire Dunn *

as Captain Excellent *

as Abby *

Kieran Culkin Kieran Kyle Culkin (born September 30, 1982) is an American actor. Known for portraying distasteful yet sympathetic characters across stage and screen, List of awards and nominations received by Kieran Culkin, his accolades include an Academy A ...

as Christopher *

Hunter Parrish Hunter Parrish Tharp (born May 13, 1987) is an American actor and singer. He is known for playing the role of Silas Botwin in the Showtime series ''Weeds'' and for his performances in the Broadway productions of ''Godspell'' in the role of Jes ...

as Bryce *

Arabella Field Arabella Field is an American actress and film producer known for her roles in films such as ''Dante's Peak'', '' Feeling Minnesota'', ''Godzilla'', ''National Treasure'', '' Paper Man'' and as Melinda Bitterman in the animated television versio ...

as Lucy *

Chris Parnell Thomas Christopher Parnell ( ; born February 5, 1967) is an American actor and comedian. First breaking through as a performer with the Los Angeles comedy troupe The Groundlings, Parnell found wider success during his tenure as a cast member on ...

as Peter

Release

''Paper Man'' was first shown at the 2009

Los Angeles Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episodi ...

. MPI Media Group acquired the rights to show the film in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

and it was given a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few cinemas across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

on April 23, 2010. The film was released with the new title ''Unlikely Hero'' in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

on DVD by Signature Entertainment in April 2014.

E1 Entertainment E1, E01, E.I or E-1 may refer to: Transportation Aircraft * Azcárate E-1, a Mexican sesquiplane trainer * Fokker E.I, a German fighter aircraft * Grumman E-1 Tracer, an American airborne early warning aircraft * Hydra Technologies E1 Gavil� ...

released the film on DVD in Canada in 2011.

Critical reception

''Paper Man'' received negative reviews from critics.

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 ...

gives it a score of 33% based on 30 reviews with an average score of 4.73/10.

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 ...

gives the film a score of 37% based on reviews from 15 critics.

Mick LaSalle Mick LaSalle (born May 7, 1959) is an American film critic and the author of two books on pre-Code Hollywood. Up to March 2008, he had written more than 1,550 reviews for the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' and he has been podcasting them since Sep ...

of the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

'' called the film "listless, tepid, lifeless and fake". Kirk Honeycutt of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' commented, "Off-kilter and awkward from the get-go, this comedy never finds any rhythm or reason".

References

External links