Harvard Man opens on the image of a nude sculpture by Auguste Rodin, and writer-director James Toback seems to think he’s offering up a similar convergence of
art and eroticism. Instead, this talky and supremely silly morality tale about a Harvard basketball player (Adrian Grenier) who gets caught up in web of drugs, sex and game-fixing resembles a crash course in philosophy that’s taught by a dirty old man. Just consider the characters Toback has dreamt up: a tough-talking Mobster’s daughter (Sarah Michelle Gellar, desperately striving for
indie cred), a sex-crazed philosophy professor (Joey Lauren Adams) and two swinging FBI agents (Eric Stoltz and Rebecca Gayheart) who are happy to satisfy the latter’s errant fantasies. With its ridiculous plot and zombie performances, Harvard Man suggests Toback should save us all a lot of trouble and just move on to making straightforward porn.
