Phil is a 2019 drama about a depressed dentist in a mid life crisis who tries to learn why one of his happiest patients suddenly commits suicide.
Greg Kinnear has had an eclectic career in movies, never quite making it to superstardom but proving himself a diverse talent with a respectable list of memorable characters. Now he steps behind the camera in his directorial debut, grabbing the steering wheel for this offbeat dark comedy that is loaded with familiar landmarks along the way though never really pushing the envelope like it feels ready to do. Kinnear is always fun to watch – he takes the lead in this as well – and has a few moments of style with his camera, but this ends up a mostly bland effort with not much to say.
Phil (Kinnear) is not doing well, having gone through a divorce and dealing with a teen daughter (Megan Charpentier) who wants to spend more time away with her mother. His dental practice is doing okay but he’s hopelessly unfulfilled, finding deep meaning in sappy pop tunes, eventually finding himself on a tall bridge, ready to take the plunge. He doesn’t and one day into his office bounces Michael (Bradley Whitford), a successful writer with a happy marriage who reminds Phil that – as Socrates once said – an unexamined life is not worth living. This doesn’t exactly motivate Phil as we might think, he instead deciding to stalk the author to learn what makes him tick. When he finds Michael swinging from a tree one day, it is shocking, but Phil takes the opportunity to take on a new identity, that of a long lost Greek friend and infiltrate his family, including Michael’s wife Alicia (Emily Mortimer). But how long can his ruse last?
Starting on the bridge, we meet Phil stuck in a spot we’ve seen many in the movies before, with a host of cruel spectators encouraging him jump so their video can go viral, which I suppose is meant to be commentary but really sets things off on a flat note, feeling uninspired to say the least. Then of course, as so many movies do now, we head back in time to find out why the dentist wants to end it all, finding that his life is sort of out of whack but not really all that bad in comparison to way too many more worse off.
Either way, it soon gets a little traction with Phil in the periphery of Michael’s life, taking Socrates’ advice to heart in examining why the writer is so happy. He’s got the big house, beautiful wife, and more, so it’s genuinely a little discomforting to see him take to a rope and branch. This is the movie’s strongest moment and should have been the gateway to something more pivotal, but instead, we end up in a silly case of who is who with Phil trying to be someone he’s not, and doing a poor job at it. Comedy ensues.
These tonal shifts ultimately derail the show, even as Kinnear is endlessly charming as Phil, delivering a very well-defined and interesting character in need of a much better story. What could and should have been a darker examination of life ends up too afraid to let go of easy laughs, wasting the good talents of a strong cast. It’s not all bad and there are some bits that tick with the right tock, but Phil is mostly a misstep.