I have a feeling that I am the only one who likes the vaguely redemptive ending of Roger Dodger. Most reviews I have seen think it is a cop out that at the end of this admittedly slimy mans day of breakdown that there could be anywhere for him to go. Which in the end I find a bit mean spirited. The appeal of the character is his awfulness certainly, but also there is something charming in his wrongheadedness, in his know-it-all savvy that knows nothing. The opening where he proves his case that men will be obsolete within a hundred years is delivered in a boorish fashion but is still the delivery of a man who know his time is up. The fact that his downfall is not due to his boorishness at all, rather that he gets tossed away like a plaything by his boss/lover is the heart of a rather dark movie that very few people seem to have noticed. Instead they see the rather more simple satire on misogeny (which the film – and Roger – with his constant appeals to the superiority of women is never convincing on).
Campbell Scott does a terrific job in humanizing this one man script deliverer. That other characters get a touch relegated is due to the fact that there literally is not any room. At turns car crashingly awful, it might be more of a commentary on the superficiality of the advertising industry than anything else. Choose that meaning if you want, I prefer looking at Roger in a more humane way. If you look at it that way, you can see it as once of the most authentic being dumped movies ever. Yes Roger is an arsehole – but even arseholes have feelings.