Taglines: Passion, seduction, deception.
Director and screenwriter James Toback used his own experiences as a college student in the 1960s as the basis for this drama about a present-day student athlete who’s bitten off more than he can chew. Alan Jensen (Adrian Grenier) is a college sophomore struggling to keep up with an unusually busy schedule — while studying philosophy as a Harvard undergrad, he’s also a point guard on the school’s basketball team, and is juggling two girlfriends, cheerleader Cindy Bandolini (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Chesney (Joey Lauren Adams), a professor ten years his senior.
As Alan tries to stay on top of his classes and keep his love life sorted out, he receives some bad news from his parents — a tornado has devastated their home, and they need $100,000 to rebuild. Alan wants to help his parents, and as it happens, Cindy’s father is a Mafia boss tied in with a number of powerful bookies. Cindy uses her family’s connection to put Alan in touch with Teddy (Eric Stoltz), a bookie who’s willing to give Alan $100,000 in exchange for throwing a few games and shaving some points.
Cindy also uses her dad’s bankroll to place a quarter-million dollar bet on the upcoming Harvard-Dartmouth game, certain Alan can ensure a predictable outcome. But when the games don’t go quite the way Alan expected, despite his best worst effort, he finds himself in dutch with the Mafia, while also attracting the attention of FBI agents who’ve been investigating Teddy and his associates.
Amidst this chaos, Alan hops a jet home to give his parents the ill-gotten $100,000, and on the flight back decides to relax mid-flight by dropping a heroic dose of LSD, which turns out not to be one of his better ideas. Harvard Man was originally intended to star Leonardo DiCaprio as Alan, but after the project was put on hold in 1994, DiCaprio rocketed to fame in Titanic, which priced himself out of the project by the time James Toback was able to return to it years later.
Harvard Man is a 2001 crime comedy-drama thriller film written and directed by James Toback, and starring Adrian Grenier, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Joey Lauren Adams, Eric Stoltz, and Rebecca Gayheart.
Harvard Man had only a limited theatrical release in April 12, 2002, and received little critical or popular acclaim, although it achieved some success when it was released on video and DVD in October of that year.
The film received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 33%, based on 36 reviews, with an average rating of 4.6/10. The site’s critical consensus reads, “Harvard Man is a pretentious, incoherent mess.” On Metacritic, which uses an average of critics’ reviews, the film has a score of 49 out of 100, based on 20 reviews, indicating “mixed or average reviews”.
Harvard Man (2002)
Directed by: James Toback
Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Adrian Grenier, Joey Lauren Adams, Eric Stoltz, Rebecca Gayheart, Gianni Russo, Scottie Epstein, Polly Shannon, Lauren Collis
Screenplay by: James Toback
Production Design by: Rupert Lazarus
Cinematography by: David M. Ferrara
Film Editing by: Suzy Elmiger
Costume Design by: Maxyne Baker
Music by: Ryan Shore
MPAA Rating: R for drug use, language and some strong sexuality.
Distributed by: Lionsgate Films
Release Date: April 12, 2002
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