Has there ever been a moment in your life where you felt the need to stretch the truth a bit and it turned into a bigger deal than you thought? The D Train, a fabulous film from Andrew Mogul and Jarrad Paul, uses this shared life experience and two wonderful performances by Jack Black and James Marsden to craft a bruising uncomfortable film that’s immensely enjoyable.
Dan Ladsman (Black) has a loving wife (Kathryn Hahn) and two kids, a decent paying, if a bit outdated, job, and he’s the head of a high school reunion committee. All in all, it’s a slightly below average life but nothing too terrible. He sees a way to glory in the form of a Bannana Boat commercial starring former school heartthrob Oliver Lawless (Marsden). Making the choice anyone would have made, he decides to concoct an elaborate story to fool his boss (Jeffrey Tambor) and wife into allowing him to go to LA and get Oliver to attend the reunion. The hairbrained scheme actually works, but as Lawless’ presence begins to undo the elaborate set up, Dan struggles to keep up the ruse.
Seriously, if you are not a fan of movies that will make you squirm in your seat and cover your eyes a bit as you cringe for what the characters are doing while laughing hysterically, then this isn’t the movie for you. Many movies take on the concept of lying for good and The D Train takes this another step further not just giving you the ramifications of the choices but exploring the various character beats and actions that are caused by the fallout. It such a wonderful yet excruciating watch, that in a peverse way I wanted to rewind scenes just to guffaw again. That type of dark comedy/drama balance is a tough, and even with a moment that’s sure to cause major chatter, the script written by Mogul and Paul keeps an even keel.
Helping it do that is the acting. I don’t know what it is about Jack Black playing characters that are off but this man can find the dark side of any character. In The D Train, he definitely has an everyman quality that allows you to sympathize with him before revealing the unhinged inner core of his character. It is wonderful to watch him create, get caught up, and be foiled by the lies that his character has created, and that’s because Black plays him in such a relatable way. Matching him in quality is James Marsden, playing Oliver. There are so many films that employ matinee looks level actors in gritty parts for the novelty of it, but lucky for viewers of the film this is not the case as Marsden so thoroughly inhabits Oliver. It’s a fun part he’s been gifted with, the former king of high school whose fallen on some tough times, and he just runs with it. Marsden lets you see why his life would seem exciting to a guy like Dan, yet also shows the many ways he’s fucked up and why we’d actually want Dan far away from him.
The D Train arrives in theaters on May 8.