Sundance Journal 2009 Day 6: John Hindman’s Arlen Faber

I’m fairly certain of who Arlen Faber is intended for and unfortunately I’m not part of that demo. I could feel that some parts of the crowd at the Racquet Club were totally into John Hindman‘s (pictured below) light-hearted, rom com, but I thought it was far too sweet, too fluffy and tried too hard. With a tone that mainstream audiences will appreciate, the premise sees an author who is the leader of the mental health book craze, but for some reason success doesn’t equate to long term happiness. Jeff Daniels flexes his comedic muscles, but like the character is plagued with problems, where as the supporting crew of young talent are throwaway characters (Kate Dennings, Olivia Thirlby) that fail to contribute anything that might be considered meaningful to the storyline. Prior to the screening, Hindman told me that the original title (The Dreams of Romans) was dumped because one of the final scenes was cut from the film.