Jeff Daniels’ ‘A Man in Full’ Is Swinging With Big Dick Energy
A Man in Full is about the power (and pitfalls) of big dick energy, of which it boasts plenty. David E. Kelley’s adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s 1998 bestseller is a multi-pronged portrait of cocksure macho arrogance and, in particular, the idea—espoused by its protagonist—that “a man has got to shake his balls.” Shake them he does, often and aggressively, as do many others in this six-part Netflix series, which launches May 2. While it’s ultimately a thin and reductive take on the famed author’s sprawling saga of Southern America, it nonetheless struts about with swaggering ferocity, led by Jeff Daniels’ full-bodied performance as a blustery, bloviating capitalist predator.
In myriad ways, from missing characters and subplots to a rather pedestrian style, A Man in Full is a stripped-down rendition of Wolf’s enormously colorful and descriptive book. Yet on its own limited terms, it remains a lively and eminently watchable affair about Charlie Croker (Daniels), an Atlanta mogul with his hands in just about every facet of the city he calls home. Those innumerable concerns, however, have put Charlie in a perilous spot, as he learns when he’s summoned to the offices of PlannersBanc for a meeting with Harry Zale (Bill Camp), the head of the Real Estate Management Department. Along with his colleague Raymond Peepgrass (Tom Pelphrey), Harry informs Charlie that he owes their institution $800 million, and given that he’s in hoc to other lenders to the tune of an additional half a billion, it’s time to settle his debt.
With a Southern accent that’s almost as thick as the coat of arrogance that he wears like armor, Charlie is a titan who’s used to being the biggest swinging dick in the room, and he naturally bristles at Harry’s antagonistic demands that he pay up or risk foreclosure on all his assets, including his prized skyscraper. Listening to Harry lambaste Charlie is music to the ears of Raymond, a wimpy paean who’s long resented being ill-treated by Charlie and who later admits to what’s written all over his face: namely, that he simultaneously loathes, resents, and envies Charlie for his bulldozer confidence and the success it begets. Pelfrey plays Raymond like a sniveling loser who desperately wants to destroy that which he covets, and he turns out to be a persistent thorn in Charlie’s side, even if Kelley’s series—which he wrote, and is passably directed by Regina King and Thomas Schlamme—expands its scope to deal with a collection of related strands.