Man Trouble

MAN TROUBLE, the fifth collaboration between Jack Nicholson and director Bob Rafelson, is a comical thriller. Nicholson plays Harry Bliss, who runs a guard dog service and is going through counseling with his wife, Adele (Lauren Tom). A serial killer is on the loose in Los Angeles, and when the apartment of classical singer Joan Spruance (Ellen Barkin) is ransacked and she starts receiving threatening phone messages, Joan moves into the Hollywood Hills home of her sister, Andy (Beverly D'Angelo). However, Joan doesn't feel safe there either, because she's harassed by Andy's ex-lovers. So Joan hires a guard dog from Harry's company, and soon Harry is providing more than protection for the beautiful singer. Harry is a natural-born liar who, because of his profession, feels that he lives by a code of honor--even if he can't quite explain it--and Nicholson plays him with comic exasperation, as one thing after another spins out of his control. The usually tough-looking Ellen Barkin is soft and vulnerable, as she is badgered by her conductor husband, harassed by unknown callers, menaced by men from her sister's past, and "helped" by Harry. Harry Dean Stanton and Saul Rubinek provide fine support.