Arlen (Jeff Daniels) wrote Me & God 25 years ago, and it spent 147 weeks on the bestsellers list. He is famous for having redefined spirituality for an entire generation. Large numbers of people desperately want to meet him but Arlen has resolutely walled himself off from the world. He lives alone in an ordinary looking house in Philadelphia where he cared for his father until he died of Alzheimer's disease. It has been 20 years since Arlen has given an interview, signed a book, or made a personal appearance anywhere. His agent and editor has tried everything she can think of to change his mind but the misanthropic author cherishes his solitude. A delivery man who desperately wants to meet the famous author is rebuffed; when he later discovers that the man answering the door is the author, he brings his family to sing his praises and Arlen douses them with water. Their enthusiasm about him is stifled, which was his goal. Arlen is an emotional zombie.
Kris (Lou Taylor Pucci) has just completed a stay at an alcohol rehab center and returns to the used bookstore he manages. But due to financial difficulties, he may have to shut the place down. This shock weighs heavily upon his soul but is not as troubling as living with his alcoholic father who is drinking himself to death. Kris can't understand why these two burdens have been added to the already difficult challenge of staying sober. He decides that Arlen must be able to answer all the big questions that he has about God, suffering, hell and injustice. He makes a deal to take the writer's unwanted used books in exchange for getting to ask him questions regularly.
Elizabeth (Lauren Graham) is a chiropractor who has just opened her first office in Arlen's neighborhood. When his back seizes up, he goes to her for treatment and is very impressed by her magical hands. He decides to see her regularly and even invites her out on a date. She has a six-year-old son, Alex (Max Antisell), whom she is raising on her own since her husband walked out on them. She's a loving mother but overly protective of the boy. One day, she entrusts the writer to pick Alex up at school; he does and happens to stand in for Elizabeth in a meeting with the boy's teacher in which he advances the kid's cause.
The Answer Man is writer and director John Hindman's first film, and it is a quirky spiritual drama that has a few thought-provoking things to say about fear, the obsession with answers in self-help books, the joys that come with accepting the mystery of life, and the salutary things that can happen when people let down their self-protective armor and open to the surprises of everyday life.
Arlen, Kris, and Elizabeth share a fearfulness that immobilizes and diminishes them. Through their interaction with each other these three characters come to see that spirituality is not about answers but about being alert to the fact that God is experiencing the world through us. We are her vulnerable and flawed ambassadors of love and caring in tense times. Life gets bigger and easier when we give in to openness and wonder. Combine all these messages together and you can take home a spiritual treasure trove from viewing The Answer Man.
Special features on the DVD include: characters of The Answer Man; a commentary with writer/director John Hindman, producer Kevin Messick, and Lauren Graham; The Answer Man: from concept to creation; and HDNet: a look at The Answer Man.
