Leaves of Grass (2010)

Bill is a respected and loved (especially by his female students) ivy league philosophy professor who is often published and is currently being courted by a rival institution. He's worked hard to move on from his humble upbringing, choosing never to visit his hometown where his mother and twin brother live. Despite those efforts, when he must return there for a few days, he's quickly dragged into a ridiculous scheme designed to provide his brother with an alibi.

Though I enjoyed the characters, the script is so packed with convolutions that it nearly overshadows the main theme. There're accusations of impropriety at Bill's school, a love interest who's a poet and a noodler (catching fish without gear), fake antisemitism, a blackmail scheme involving a desperate orthodontist... I'm getting annoyed just typing these out and I could keep right on typing. Great performances and interesting characters stuck in a far too sticky narrative web.

B-