Diamond Men (2000)

Eddie is an aging traveling diamond salesman working the back roads of Pennsylvania. He’s developed longstanding relationships with his clients and prides himself in his knowledge of the trade. After a heart attack, management deems him too high a risk to be carrying the expensive collection of diamonds. His last assignment is to train a rookie salesman, Bobby, whose cocky sales tactics promise to estrange Eddie's long-standing clientele. Needless to say, the relationship between the two men gets off to a rocky start but eventually, the two find that each has something valuable to offer the other.

Sometimes it takes a lot more than two

"Beware, I am the jewel and around me there is lead, pallid, ignominious lead!"

A friend of mine reminded me of this movie recently via e-mail, so I stuck in an old copy and gave it another viewing. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it so much I decided to write a review to remind myself how much I enjoyed it in case I ever forgot again. I think it was Oscar Wilde, or Mel, the cook on Alice, who said something like only a shallow person doesn't judge a book by its cover. I don't think that's true with film, because like so many others, if I'd judged this movie by its cover art I would've never taken the time to watch it, since on the surface it appears to be another generic heist movie. I'm glad I bothered, though. Sure, it is a standard story, but what saves this low-budget film are the strong performances from leads Robert Forster and Donnie Wahlberg, as well as interesting supporting characters, including brothel workers played by Bess Armstrong and Jasmine Guy. Bess Armstrong teaches Wahlburg's rookie salesman character many important lessons that help him keep his job, mainly how to communicate with those different from you, that you get what you give, and the more honest you are with yourself the easier it is to sniff out other people's lies. Whether or not she's able to follow her own lessons isn't clear, and maybe it isn't important, since Wahlberg and his partner wind up better people in the end. Director Dan M. Cohen is a gifted director who knows how to inject humanity into a variety of stock characters. If you're someone who has a nose for films like "One False Move" or the films of Victor Nunez, you'll probably enjoy "Diamond Men."
December 9, 2005

Diamond In The Rough

Love them or hate them, Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, followed by Richard Roeper, exposed the American public to films that may never have been seen otherwise. Through their television show, they exposed films that were having difficulty getting distributed. Recently, Ebert and Roeper favorably reviewed a film called "Diamond Men", a small independent film starring Robert Forster and Donnie Wahlberg. The film has just been released in LA. The theater for the Sunday matinee screening I attended was about ¾ full, remarkable for a film that is independent and received almost no publicity.

Eddie Miller (Robert Forster) is a traveling salesman. He drives through the small towns of Pennsylvania, selling his companies line of diamond jewelry. And he does a remarkably good job at it. After one visit, he has a heart attack, putting him on the sidelines as he recovers. Returning to work, raring to go, he learns that he can longer sell on the road. No insurance company will cover him and when he is carrying over $1 million in samples in his trunk, that becomes a serious problem. The company offers him an alternative: Train the new guy who will take over your route. Then maybe they will find something for him to do. He reluctantly agrees and soon meets his new partner, Bobby Walker (Donnie Wahlberg). Bobby is young and brash and they initially don't get along very well.

"Diamond Men" is a very small, independent film. Robert Forster served as one of the Executive Producers and saw the film as a showcase for his acting ability. He was correct. Forster is the best thing about the film, an actor seemingly revered by other actors, his recent roles have been created to showcase his abilities. Forster has a natural, laid back quality in his characters that seems to be at odds with his age and physical size. It is this contradiction that makes these same characters so interesting. Also, Eddie is a man of a lot of experience and wisdom, a role that seems custom fit for Forster. Forster avoids showy theatrics and makes Eddie seem human. A serious man, when he finds out that he is about to lose his job, he takes the sensible approach, and accepts the temporary assignment his company offers. He goes about the business in a very workman-like way and soon finds himself reluctantly accepting the new guy under his wing. The relationship between the two men is the basis for the film and creates an engaging look at their lives.

Donnie Wahlberg is less successful, but also good. Bobby, younger, brasher, more excited, is completely the opposite of Eddie. Wahlberg doesn't have the range of Forster and this becomes evident when his character whines and pleads with Eddie, rather than talk. At times, this behavior seems a good match for the character, but at other times it seems very showy and theatrical and draws the viewer out of the film.

As the characters criss-cross the state of Pennsylvania, Eddie reluctantly becomes Bobby's friend and actually appears to like him. Naturally, the salesman come into contact with other people along the way. The film is always more successful when Eddie is interacting with people of his maturity. When Eddie eventually meets Katie (Bess Armstrong), the film seems to be moving along the right track. Armstrong's character is the emotional and mature equivalent of Eddie and they make an interesting and engaging couple. When they meet, the film seems to know where it should go and how it should get there. Earlier, when Eddie meets a young prostitute, the scene is funny but also seems more at home in a television sitcom.

"Diamond Men" is a very low budget film. It is the type of film in which every interior scene is shot with the curtains closed, to control the light. But, in a way, this only makes the film better and more pleasing. Once you look past the fact that everyone has their curtains closed in the middle of the day, you start looking at the story, the relationships, the characters. Overall, they are all excellent and much more engaging than in a major Hollywood production in which twenty times the money was spent.

My biggest complaint about the film would lie in the ending. It is completely predictable, rushed and feels almost tacked on. The ending would've benefit greatly from a little more time or discussion focused on the eventual outcome.

Go see "Diamond Men" and you will be pleasantly surprised.

April 13, 2005

A subtle movie with lots of sparkle

I saw this film on Independent Film Channel so I can't comment on the DVD aspects. But the story is great. As another review mentioned, this is a character study and you won't see any elves or CGI. Just some characters that are working together in a push-pull relationship and then together. Robert Forrester is an under-rated actor. He can take dialogue and drive it straight home. It would be a good movie for someone starting their first job. Listening and observing is just a important as the knowledge you think you have. December 29, 2004

Good Movie - OK DVD

I enjoyed this movie and I would recommend it. Forrester carries this movie, if you liked him in Jackie Brown, then you will like him in this.

On the downside, I was not entirely happy with the DVD. The Anamorphic disc is a bit misleading, as you actually see more on the 4:3 setting of your DVD Player. If you have a 16:9 TV as I do, it ends up clipping off the top and bottom of the picture, including some of the captions (aka "Week 1" etc). In some scenes you can tell the tops of peoples heads are being clipped.

Even worse, the commentary, which I enjoyed, refers in some scenes to what you see in the "widescreen print" of the film but even at 16:9 setting, you do not see these things on this DVD.

If they ever make a new transfer of this movie from the widescreen print, I would increase my rating of that DVD to 4 stars.

I find it suprising that with two prints of the film, they would choose the lower aspect ratio one to make to DVD, and then worse than that, they then chose to master the DVD in 4:3 with letterbox and then have use the anamorphic feature to clip the 4:3 letterbox version to a 16:9 view. This is exactly backwords. Let the DVD player add the extra black letterbox for the 4:3 folks and give full fidelity to people with 16:9 TVs. Happily, not many movies are transfered this way. September 2, 2004

A sleeper to sleep to

I coudn't finish this film, and I didn't think it was interesting at all. Honestly, the acting seemed forced, and there wasn't any sort of play between Robert Forster and Donnie Wahlberg, which seemed to be the main focus of this film. Just a seriously calmed down older guy and a cliché young guy who wants to have sex with every girl he meets. Most of what happened in this movie felt unnatural to me, and never surreal enough for that fact not to matter. At least take the time to learn what to expect if you plan on watching this, because it sure didn't grab me at all. May 22, 2004

More reviews at Amazon.com ...