The Answer Man (2009)

Stars: Jeff Daniels, Lauren Graham, etc.

Directed by John Hindman

The most famous spiritual book "Me and God" is gonna celebrate it's 20th anniversary, and the author, Arlen Faber, has kept himself secluded and secret to the public on the same exact 20 years since its release. Age suddenly has kept him a bit frail and cramps and arthritis has started to immobilize him at his home. He calls his PR manager but to no avail, so he 'crawls' out of the open manually (I mean, really, he did crawl on the streets) to look for the nearest chiropractor in town, and meets the doctor, a reclusive single mom of a 5-year old kid. And for the first time he mentions his name out of the public through her as she was not familiar with her...not when she starts to read his book out of her friend's recommendation.

Amiable comedy romance with a nice script and a not-so-deep story about how the fans of the book have been desperately want to meet the author in 20 years of its circulation and a whole lot of rip-offs, plus the musings of how a common bookstore owner with a troubled past and a lesser communication with his only parent makes him vulnerable to asking to the author about the same questions the author himself doesn't even have a clue what he answers about and yet still hits the right notes.

The best part of this movie, for me, was because it suddenly hits my sentimental raison d'etre as the movie uncovers the reasons on how he became successful out of nothing and yet still tends to cope from his seclusion to his fame. A somewhat sound reflection of how I cope up with life as well as how the author or the bookstore owner did too.

A father's illness and death. We share the same history. I may not be a writer, but it sure hell hits me (and made me cry) the almost perfect reflection of every rationale and logic I've learned in life.

Here's how Arlen Faber's first speech in 20 years (16 for mine) goes:

I can't talk to God. Here's the deal: A little over (16) years ago I found out that my father had an illness. Everything he had and everything we did together would be taken from him....Now I got this news and I begged for help from, you know, whomever. I pleaded!...nothing. I had questions, I wanted answers, needed them....Well guess what happened. I didn't get them, and it really pissed me off. So one day I started to (think) the questions down. And then some answers to those questions came to me, and I (thought) them down too. Before I knew it I had all these (lessons in life). One thing led to another and that's how "Me and God" came to be. That's it. I didn't even really think that much of it at that time (since I was just 13). I wish it were more amazing than that, I really do....I don't know. Maybe. Maybe whoever's up there just used my anger and pain to make part of some divine plan. And he did, he sure as hell didn't let me in on it. I'm not a guy with answers. I'm just a guy who recently crawled back to civilization on all fours...