An ambitious grad student (Lauren “Six Feet Under” Ambrose) convinces a distinguished literary genius that she can revamp his career if he lets her do her thesis on him. But with this comes the spilling out of many concealed and emotion truths of the famed author, Leonard Schiller (Frank Langella). His daughter, Ariel (Lili Taylor) sees a transition in her dad and a skip in his walk, while he sees the difference between the two young women each competing for his love and attention. It’s refreshing to see the two female “Six Feet Under” stars reunited, but this is clearly Langella’s movie. While his Tony award winning performances are usually intense and gripping, his screen performances controlling (remember Quilty in “Lolita.”) this role provides us the opportunity to see a more in-control Langella, in a touching, and tortured tale – more like “Lolita’s” Humbert – of one old man’s revisit to the characters of his past through the passions of a younger woman. Four tiaras
