Review: 'Fantasy Life' puts a law-school dropout among Martha Vineyard's idle rich, from a new director who isn't there yet but shows promise

I wasn’t bowled over by “Fantasy Life,” a New York-set comedy-drama in which actor Matthew Shear makes his writing and directing debut, but Shear shows enough promise as a storyteller that I want to keep an eye on what he does next.

Shear plays Sam, a law-school dropout who has been fired from a job at a big law firm. He goes to his therapist, Fred (Judd Hirsch), to talk out his sense of failure, and Fred responds with a job offer. Fred and his wife, Helen (Andrea Martin), who’s also Fred’s receptionist, have a son, David (Alessandro Nivola), who needs a live-in babysitter. With few other job prospects, Sam accepts. 

David, we learn, is a bass player who’s been offered a chance to tour Australia with a big-name headlining musician. David’s wife, Dianne (Amanda Peet), is a former actress who — for reasons of motherhood and depression — hasn’t had a role in a decade. 

Sam takes the job tending to David and Dianne’s three daughters, ages 6, 8 and 11, and even moves into a basement room when the family spends the summer on Martha’s Vineyard. Everyone seems cool with this arrangement, except for Dianne’s suspicious father, Lenny (Bob Balaban). But Dianne’s comfort level is challenged when Sam starts falling for her.

Shear has attracted a solid cast, and it’s a joy to see old pros like Hirsch, Martin, Balaban and Jessica Harper deployed as David and Dianne’s parents. It’s also a delight to see Peet, who hasn’t had a meaty movie role like this in a decade, give a standout performance as a woman who loves her children but is learning that they don’t fulfill her as much as she had hoped. 

“Fantasy Life” shows Shear feels comfortable in this atmosphere of idle rich folks summering at the Vineyard, among people who are oblivious to how their wealth insulates them from real-world problems. Shear doesn’t have any particularly probing observations about this world, but one senses he only needs one or two more movies under his belt to get there.

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‘Fantasy Life’

★★1/2

Opens Friday, April 3, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Rated R for language, some sexual references and brief drug use. Running time: 91 minutes.