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“The Leading Man” starts as a backstage story about the London theatre scene, and then a little Hitchcockian suspense creeps in. It’s a film about “Britain’s greatest living playwright,” a troubled middle-aged figure with a wife and mistress, both of whom he has managed to infuriate. While Premiering his new play, a Hollywood sex symbol offers to take care of all his issues, by getting rid of his wife.
This is slightly similar to Hitchcock’s setup in “Strangers on a Train”, where an outsider perceives a problem and offers to solve it– for a cost. The clever twist in “The Leading Man” is that we never exactly comprehend the movie star’s entire scheme. What is his motivation (besides receiving the husband’s permission to charm the wife?) What else is he planning? The role of the movie star, Robin Grange, is performed by rock musician Jon Bon Jovi, who portrays a man that seems to have no obstacle in the direction of him charming any woman he desires. Like Richard Gere, he has a way of looking at women as if they were both thinking the same thing.
Felix Webb (Lambert Wilson), the playwright, has a wife who despises how he has treated his family. He also has a mistress who is fed up with his never-ending promises to leave his wife. Because of this, he struggles to find happiness. For someone like Felix, romantic affairs aren’t even worth the trouble they bring.
Felix’s issues escalate during practice for his new play which features Robin and his mistress, Hilary (Thandie Newton). It also features two dependable British veterans, portrayed by David Warner and Patricia Hodge, who have been in the industry long enough to just show up for work without caring whether or not the current production is good or not, and so they always do their jobs. The older actors ignore the young nervous ones who are performing unnecessary exercises before the performance and Warner’s character listens to cricket and plays solitaire.
Indeed, the playwright could be living his life far better than he currently does. He owns a huge old house along the bank of the River Thames, right next to Hammersmith bridge. His sons and daughters ecstatically play in the garden while his wife Elena (Anna Galiena) nurtures resentment (one night, she sneaks up on him while he is asleep, takes scissors and brutally chops off his famous forelock). Elena is younger than Felix, and Hilary is younger still, living with roommates who race out to dance clubs and are amused by the fogey she has taken into her bed. But here’s the kicker: She really is, and for a long time has been, truly in love with him without being shown as a flirt or a seductress, the way she should be.
An American named Robin swiftly figures out what Felix believes is a secret his affair with his leading lady. Eventually, Robin offers the great man something; I will seduce Elena which in turn would clear the field. ‘I would be doing a favor for a friend,’ he elaborates. ‘Besides, I have seen her photos, and she is a beautiful woman,’ So she is, and loyal, to an extend. But Robin does some careful studying of his quarry, making lists of what books she reads, what music she listens to (which are hardly convincing), and how he uncovers her secret – Elena is a playwright too, but writes in the shadow of Felix’s immense fame. He can help her, but is there something sinister in Robin’s too good to be true helpfulness? He is now also getting closer to his co-star, Hilary. Is his plan to take both women from the playwright? And the gun he seems to enjoy playing with? The film, directed by John Duigan and written by his sister Virginia, appears to be well versed in its show business setting.
Virginia’s marriage is to director Bruce Beresford, and Dualigan has long been romantically linked to the actress Newton whom he directed in the remarkable movie, “Flirting” (1992). Some biographical details such as the Oxford degree Newton holds are indeed based on reality.
The climax fails to do justice, as expected. If the stage had a gun and corresponding love triangles set, Hitchcock would’ve had no trouble. Duigan, however, manages to keep our concentration to the elaborate concluding developments, and his representation of the London theater scene is cynical and observant. His employment of actor Barry Humphries, playing the director of Felix’s play, along with Warner and Hodge as the over the hill pros gives a comical twist to the heavy concerns in the front.
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