CLOSE-UP: REVIEW - ROGER DODGER. A story of misogyny and disillusionment in the dark heart of New York's ad scene.(Movie Review)

John Donnelly reviews this bitter and charming tale of a self-loathing copywriter.

Hollywood and the advertising business - although strikingly similar in many ways - are poles apart. Adland loves the movies, yet, almost uniformly, the movies hate adland.

Why do we get such bad celluloid? Probably because of the perception that the industry is constantly stealing the tinsel from Tinseltown.

A new movie from the US, Roger Dodger, offers no succour. Sadly, we're still held in contempt.

We meet ad man Roger Swanson right off the bat, in a coffee bar holding forth with some friends. There's no initial clue that he works in advertising - he's actually a suit-and-tie-wearing copywriter. All we get is the instant hit that he's an arrogant, cocksure son-of-a-bitch who hates himself, his work and especially his women.

And, if we're to believe him, he's had (and is having) a lot of the latter.

When Roger arrives at his place of work - the point at which we find out he's a big, bad ad man - he has a surprise waiting in the form of his 16-year-old nephew Nick (beautifully played by Jesse Eisenberg). He's in town from Ohio. Nick has heard all about the ultimate ladies' man Uncle Roger from his mom. And he wouldn't mind watching and learning at the feet of The Great Man.