Months pass. Back in Denver, we meet Carolyn (Hope Davis), Danny's wife. She is known as Bean. Yes, Bean. Bean and Danny are still in love; there's a sweet scene where she remembers how in high school he told her how pretty she was. The doorbell rings and it's Julian, desperate, falling to pieces, telling Danny something that we suspect may be true: "You are my only friend in the world."
Julian moves in, fascinating Bean and Danny. Ironically, Julian is equally fascinated by Bean and Danny’s love for one another: He’s made his way through life, he says, “running from any emotion.”
Other characters become involved. There is talk of Julian's panic attacks and a meltdown in the Philippines. His employer, Mr. Randy (Philip Baker Hall), has lost patience; he's like an investor who loved a stock but knows it's time to dump it. Julian's life may be in danger. At a crucial moment he walks through a hotel lobby wearing only boots and Speedos, and although there is a reason for this, the real reason is to show Julian reduced to despair and public humiliation and meeting it with jaunty indifference.
Brosnan is so intriguing to watch in the movie. Unshaven, trembling, hung-over, fearful, charming, confiding, paranoid, trusting, he clings to Danny and Bean like a lost child at the zoo. Where did he get those shirts he wears? They look like they were bought six at a time out of the back of a van at a truck stop. The richness of his comic performance depends on the way he savors and treasures this character; at no point does Brosnan apologize for Julian, or stand outside of him, or seem to invite our laughter. He is like the charming stranger you meet in a bar, who you know could become your best friend if he were not so obviously a time bomb.
Against Brosnan, Kinnear and Davis are perfect foils, enjoying his character as much as he does. The three actors do something that is essential to this kind of comedy: They refuse to be in on the joke. It's not funny for them. They never wink. The movie's writer-director, Richard Shepard, balances the macabre and the sentimental, and understands that although his film contains questions like "don't successful people always live with blood on their hands?" its real subject is friendship.
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