The eyes have it in ‘The Details’

By ROGER MOORE
McCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE

In “The Details,” the Devil isn’t in the you-know-whats. It’s in Tobey Maguire’s eyes.

He’s got the crazy eyes of the deranged, the bug-eyes of the shocked, the dazed eyes of the comically dismayed. All of which come in handy when you’re swirling down the drain of sexual betrayal, when you’re facing professional, personal and financial ruin, when you’re being outsmarted by raccoons.

Yes, raccoons. That’s how it all starts.

In “The Details,” Maguire’s a not-that-happily married suburban Washington OB-GYN whose new lawn would be the great joy of his life.  If only the raccoons would stop digging it up, looking for grubs.

The raccoons are why Dr. Jeff Lang has to abandon his nights prowling the Internet for porn. His wife (Elizabeth Banks) may want a second baby, but her excuses for not having sex are legion. Raccoons are why Jeff has to make nice with their “wackadoodle neighbor,” a wild-haired harridan played by Laura Linney. That, and they want to sneakily add on to their house, in spite of the zoning that prohibits it, and don’t want “wackadoodle” to interfere.

Raccoons, if he doesn’t watch out, will be Jeff’s downfall.

Jeff’s being tugged in so many directions. He wants to have that second kid, to keep his wife happy. He wants the neighbor, a borderline “cat lady,” calm. He’d like to do right by the working-class pal he plays basketball with (Dennis Haysbert).

And he just flat out “wants” that college classmate, now married to a restaurateur (Ray Liotta). She’s played by Kerry Washington, so yes, we get it.