Oliver was once a popular kid in high school, who went on to pursue his career in acting, predominately in TV commercials. With nobody RSVPing to the reunion, Dan finds one thing that will make them all come and that is the presence of Oliver Lawless (James Marsden). Dan's immediate problem is that nobody, neither the remainder of his committee nor his old classmates, share even a fraction of his enthusiasm, and his constant monopolizing and narcissism fills his peers with contempt. He is the "do all" man on the job, working as hard as everyone combined, as he appears to relish the days of high school and the memories it left for him. The film follows Dan Landsman, the self-appointed chairman of his high school's twentieth reunion committee. However, while being bold enough to try and tackle something larger, "The D Train" tries to have it both ways, creating a raunchy comedy out of material that deserves a more intimate focus and treads almost fatally into the Adam Sandler "anti-character study" formula of belittling its troubled hero.
Great films have been assembled just from using one of these ideas, and for a film to include all of them in some way shows a large amount of ambition on part of the writing and directing team at work here.
Beneath the sequences of ribald partying and an explosive Jack Black performance lies tender, more touching ideas of disillusionment, self-delusion, and identity, personal and sexual. Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel's "The D Train" is a far more layered film than its trailers lead one to believe.