Like Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, Malkovich plays a star long past his glory days in The Great Buck Howard, but continuing to do the only thing he knows. The tone of the two films couldn't be less alike, but the story arc of the central characters graphs the same. The problem with The Great Buck Howard is that McGinly gives us another key character - Troy Gable (Colin Hanks), a would-be writer who drops out of law school to become Buck Howard's road manager-cum-personal assistant. ("You can toss my salad when you get back to the hotel," the magician instructs his new hire.)