| M.J. Clayton (Bronson Pinchot) is a high profile
Art Critic in Chicago. He is known throughout the country for his
heartless and angry reviews, and is often scolded by his publisher.
After a particularly mean-spirited batch of reviews, he takes a
vacation to his small cottage on Mackinac Island. At a local pub,
he awkwardly meets up with Frank (John Lepard), one of the angry
artists who had been bashed by one of Clayton’s recent reviews.
The beers and hard liquor start to take hold, and before he knows
what hit him, Clayton makes an impulsive and sloppy proclamation
that any idiot can make art, and bets that he can prove it. The
next morning, hung over, using supplies happily furnished by Frank,
he finds himself struggling to fulfill his wager with no particular
talent.
Downtown is an annual art festival, and because of his notoriety
and rantings at the bar, M. J. Clayton painfully finds himself featured
prominently in festival literature. His connection to the national
art scene makes him some kind of a local hero. He really just wants
to hide and not deal with these people. Then he gets the bad news,
he’s fired.
When he finds out that the first place prize is $10,000, he puts
a last minute entry into the festival using a particularly striking
painting he quietly purchases from Lisa, a genuinely gifted local
artist (Toni Trucks). Ghost painting he calls it. No big deal. His
efforts turn mostly to bluffing, and the patrons of the festival
are amazed at his ‘talent’. He tries to stay modest.
In the end, the truth is painfully revealed, and M. J. Clayton finds
his arrogance grinding into humility. He discovers the hard way
that the ability to create art is indeed a gift and that he is not
among the chosen few.
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Synopsis | 
