Tom Wolfe was a breathtakingly gifted wordsmith whose writings have been adapted with varying success by Hollywood. Wolfe’s 1965 Esquire article about the NASCAR driver Junior Johnson became the terrific 1973 sports drama “The Last American Hero,” starring a young Jeff Bridges. “The Right Stuff,” Wolfe’s sprawling 1979 book about NASA’s Project Mercury program, was turned into one of the best films of the 1980s. Then there’s “The Bonfire of the Vanities” (1990), based on the Wolfe novel of the same name, which is such an unmitigated, tone-deaf, cartoonishly garish disaster, it proved that even Tom Hanks can be miscast in a film.
Now comes the six-part Netflix limited series “A Man in Full,” based on Wolfe’s 1998 scathingly satirical novel that touches on race, class, the legal system and politics in Atlanta. With a perfectly cast Jeff Daniels turning in a world-class performance as the powerful and obscenely wealthy but beleaguered real estate tycoon Charlie Croker, a gifted supporting ensemble that includes Diane Lane, Lucy Liu, Bill Camp, William Jackson Harper and Tom Pelphrey, and sharp writing and stylish direction throughout, “A Man in Full” doesn’t quite match the Shakespearean gravitas of “Succession” or the outlandish spectacle of “Billions.” But it’s well-crafted pop entertainment about people who are mostly awful (with a few notable exceptions) but great fun to watch.
As is almost the norm these days, “A Man in Full” opens in Media Res, with a major character in crisis, wondering: “I don’t mean this as a criticism … but when you die, will people notice?” Cut to a title card telling us it’s 10 DAYS EARLIER, and we swoop into Croker’s lavish 60th birthday party, and judging by the giant renditions of Charlie on the cover of Atlanta Magazine, GQ and Forbes, it’s safe to say there’s no small amount of ego involved here.
This is such a swank and exclusive affair that the entertainment is none other than Shania Twain (played by Shania Twain) who sings “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” and later does a sultry version of “You’re Still the One” as Charlie dances with his beautiful and ever-supportive second wife, Serena (Sarah Jones). We’ve also caught a glimpse of the gold and gleaming tower for Croker Industries, which appears to be the tallest and most impressive structure in the city, with “CROKER” in letters so large it would give Donald Trump pause (OK, almost). It’s clear Charlie Croker is the king of Atlanta.
Turns out Charlie is also a profligate spender who indulges in every personal luxury imaginable and is deeply in debt, as we learn in an expertly rendered sequence in which Bill Camp’s Harry Zale, who is the head of the real estate asset management department for Charlie’s primary bank, sits at the head of an unimaginably long conference table populated by more than a dozen bankers and lawyers, and bluntly tells Charlie the party is over — that unless Charlie starts to make good on outstanding loans, he’s going to lose everything.
“I’m not sure who the hell you think you’re talking to!” bellows Charlie, to which Harry coolly replies, “I’m talking to a man who owes this bank 800 million dollars. A man who owes six other banks another 400 million dollars.”
As Charlie scrambles, plots and schemes to save his empire — and he’ll resort to just about any means necessary to survive — the “A Man in Full” universe expands to incorporate a number of story threads, all of them connected in one way or another to Charlie’s world. His executive assistant, Jill Hensley (Chanté Adams), comes to Charlie for help when her husband Conrad (Steppenwolf Theatre’s Jon Michael Hill) is arrested for assaulting a police officer in a dispute over a traffic violation. Charlie’s ex-wife, Martha (Diane Lane), becomes involved with Tom Pelphrey’s Raymond Peepgrass, a lowly loan officer who has been treated like a bug by Charlie for years and is obsessed with bringing him down. Meanwhile, incumbent Mayor Wes Jordan (William Jackson Harper) is facing a stiff challenge from a good ol’ boy who was Charlie’s college football teammate back in the day — and it’s in Charlie’s best interest to persuade his ex’s friend, Joyce Newman (Lucy Liu), to come forward with some potentially campaign-ending information about the mayor’s opponent.
Yes, it’s a lot to unpack. But with the prolific David E. Kelley (“Ally McBeal,” “Big Little Lies,” et al.) as showrunner, writer and executive producer, and directing duties split between actor-filmmaker Regina King (“One Night in Miami”) and Thomas Schlamme (“The West Wing,” “The Americans”), each story gets just the right amount of play, and the result is a rich mix of sudsy but spot-on social commentary and satire.
