In the Land of Women (2007)

For many years I avoided the teenage girl fanfare associated with the Fox network's breakout hit, The OC, which began in 2003 and ran through 2007.  I saw the behind the scene specials all over cable television, the typical tabloid magazine covers displaying what they were wearing or who they were dating, but chose to look the other way --that is until last October.

Being a devourer of pop-culture, an American Studies minor, and a Telecommunications and Film major, I thought I should know more about the phenomenon that was The OC.  Purely for the purposes of research, I watched all four seasons of the show in 2.2 weeks, and that's when I fell in love with a person I thought did not exist.  Seth Cohen, the fictional character played by Adam Brody, listened to Death Cab for Cutie and could talk for hours upon hours about comic books.  Aside from being only slightly whimpier than me, I felt I had found my soap opera counterpart.  Turns out Seth Cohen is Adam Brody in real life too and was just playing himself the whole time.  That's all you should expect from Brody in 2007's In the Land of Women, or Seth Cohen Does Ann Arbor.

Brody plays a small time screenwriter for adult entertainment, Carter Webb, who gets dumped by his gorgeous, burgeoning actress girlfriend very early in the movie.   He then goes to Michigan to take care of his ailing grandmother, played by OIympia Dukakis.  Across the street lives The Hardwicke family, Sarah (Meg Ryan),  Lucy (Kristen Stewart), and Paige (Makenzie Vega). 

I can't say too much without pretty much giving away the entire loosely planned, poorly written, and completely predictable plot, but I can say there's a mother/daughter love triangle involving Carter Webb. This movie was an excellent vehicle to allow Adam Brody a chance to kiss a major star like Meg Ryan, an opportunity that will not be afforded to him again if he doesn't learn how to play a character that someone other than me will like. And even I was bored with him.  I was excited to see that Brody had received a starring role after The OC, but in the end not only dissappointed by his performance, but by the movie as a whole.

I have high hopes for Brody's future, but something tells me he will forever be Seth Cohen to the world, and unless he can shake the whiny, indie-slacker typecast, I don't think he'll get much work until they plan The OC Ten Year Reunion Show.

-Joshua J. Hamilton