When we first meet the hapless Cliff Cashen (played by co-writer Michael Strassner) in Jay Duplass’s ( The Do-Deca-Pentathlon , Jeff, Who Lives at Home ) latest comedy-drama, The Baltimorons , he’s literally at the end of his rope — or more accurately, the loose belt he uses to attempt suicide. A failure in his own mind and practically everyone else’s, Cliff fails to end his life in comic-absurdist fashion.
It’s certainly a compelling, if bleak, way to open any film, especially a comedy-drama. Given the lack of context behind Cliff’s decision, it remains an open-ended mystery well past the mid-point of The Baltimorons’ running time. Until then, though, we’re left with Cliff, on the mend, but obviously still floundering, accompanying his longtime girlfriend, Brittany (Olivia Luccardi), to a Christmas Eve party at her parents’ home in a residential section of Baltimore. Wary, borderline panic-stricken, the overly anxious man inadvertently walks into a door, leaving him with a broken molar, a bleeding mouth, and the immediate need for the services of a dentist.
Despite everything shutting down around the holiday, Cliff finds a dentist, Dr. Didi (Liz Larsen), willing to take him on as a patient on short notice. Instinctually adept at always saying the worst thing at the worst possible time (both coincide with his myopic self-interest, unsurprisingly enough), Cliff somehow manages to charm Dr. Didi. She finds the combination of his bearish size, unkempt appearance, and abject terror around needles endearing rather than off-putting or annoying as someone might in the real world.
In a film packed with coincidences and not a few contrivances, Cliff finds himself without a car (it’s towed while he’s seeing Dr. Didi) or an available ride-sharing service, which leaves him to rely on the kindness of a near-stranger, Dr. Didi, to help him recover his car from the impound yard. From there, a friendship bordering on something more blossoms between patient and dentist, all while Brittany, mostly offscreen, finds herself ignored and/or outright dismissed by Cliff.
And therein lies the rub: Strassner’s semi-autobiographical creation, Cliff, falls into an all-too-familiar man-child category. Incapable of leaving his dream of becoming a working comedian behind, and pressured by Brittany to settle down (i.e., getting a steady gig, committing to her), Cliff chooses the selfish, self-entitled path most traveled by man-children. His muddled needs remain paramount while Brittany’s needs become of secondary or even tertiary importance.
There’s nothing in the implicit, unspoken contract between filmmakers and audiences that unequivocally states in-film characters need to be likeable (they don’t), but they should be relatable. While perfectly understandable, Cliff’s desire to find himself through a potential fling with Dr. Didi comes both at Brittany’s expense and the audience’s. It’s hard, if not impossible, to root for a character to self-actualize, find himself, etc., when someone else pays the emotional toll.
A simple rewrite, say making Brittany Cliff’s ex-girlfriend, still in his life, but not his romantic partner, or shifting her role to a near sibling could have avoided what to some will make The Baltimorons a no-go or a film where they actively root for the stumbling, bumbling, flailing Cliff to lose and/or fail again personally (a more realistic, real-world response).
While the age difference between Cliff and Didi isn’t given much screen time except in passing, their differing social standing (he’s practically unemployed, relying on Brittany’s largesse, while she’s a well-established, materially comfortable professional) gets even less discussion onscreen. Didi might find Cliff’s brusque charms attractive, but a long-term relationship seems like a near impossibility.
Whatever its faults, story- or character-wise, The Baltimorons unfolds at a leisurely pace, a testament not to the screenplay (co-written by Duplass) but to efficiently economical direction and winning characterizations from the top down and the middle-out. Far from essential viewing, T he Baltimorons still manages to cross over into watchable territory, albeit with the aforementioned caveats.
The Baltimorons opened in theatres on September 26.
