Chris Eigeman gives clever, abrasive men enough pace and assurance to make their company pleasurable. We like him most when that confidence exposes how little practice they have at living, as it does in Metropolitan.
Fi1m perspective
In Metropolitan (1990), Chris Eigeman’s Nick Smith speaks briskly and with little apparent doubt about his own judgement. Taylor Nichols’s earnest Charlie Black gives him a useful contrast: the conversation changes speed according to who has the floor. Eigeman makes the elaborate dialogue sound like something Nick enjoys saying, rather than something he has worked hard to remember. We enjoy his company without needing to share his certainty. The mannered delivery fits these privileged young people, for whom talking is already a practised social habit.
That screen debut established the quick-witted, abrasive figure Eigeman would be asked to play again. Whit Stillman cast him as the outspoken naval officer Fred Boynton in Barcelona (1994), then as club manager Des in The Last Days of Disco (1998). Between those films he appeared in Noah Baumbach’s Kicking and Screaming (1995), a portrait of post-college aimlessness. These are roles with an obvious family resemblance. The danger is that articulate discontent becomes the whole character before the actor has much chance to do anything else.
Metropolitan shows why that need not be a problem. We laughed at the young company’s confidence about class and failure, because the speakers had so little practice at living. Eigeman’s assurance helps Stillman make their pretensions funny without reducing them to people we can simply dismiss. He can carry a dense stretch of dialogue, but the pleasure also depends on Nichols giving those exchanges a different rhythm. The romance sometimes feels too neatly arranged, yet we remain interested in these people even when their conversation begins to repeat itself.
Eigeman subsequently took recurring television roles in Malcolm in the Middle and Gilmore Girls, and wrote and directed Turn the River (2007). There is more to his work than the articulate young men, though we would still begin with Stillman. Start with Metropolitan, and listen to how much Nichols’s earnestness contributes to the pleasure of Eigeman’s certainty.
Biography
Chris Eigeman is an American actor and director. He is best known for roles in films written and directed by Whit Stillman: Metropolitan (1990), in which he played Nick Smith, Barcelona (1994) and The Last Days of Disco (1998). He also appeared in Noah Baumbach's Kicking and Screaming (1995).
Born in Denver, Colorado, in 1965, Eigeman attended The Putney School and graduated from Kenyon College with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Theatre in 1987. He has had recurring television roles including Jason Stiles in Gilmore Girls and Lionel Herkabe in Malcolm in the Middle. Eigeman wrote and directed the 2007 film Turn the River.
