Auto Focus
2002
**½
Director: Paul Schrader
Cast: Greg Kinnear, Willem Dafoe, Rita Wilson, Maria Bello, Ron Leibman
As numerous educational books and films have taught us, a life of excess leads either to redemption (Walk the Line) or to death (The Doors). This fact-based story doesn't break the formula. A clean-cut family man and overnight celebrity suddenly discovers that he's irresistible to women. Pretty soon he immerses himself in sleaze, turns into a sex addict and begins to tape himself in action. Greg Kinnear is very strong in the lead, but the film offers precious little new insight into the subject. In fact, there wouldn't be a movie at all was it not based on a real life TV star.
