Movie Review The Other Woman

The Other Woman (2014) 

Directed by Nick Cassavetes 

Written by Melissa Stack 

Starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Upton, Leslie Mann, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau 

Release Date April 25th, 2014 

Published January 2nd, 2024 

Cameron Diaz is back in theaters this weekend with "The Other Woman," a comedy that casts her as the the unknowing mistress of Nikolaj Coster Waldau who falls into an unlikely friendship with with his wife played by Leslie Mann and his other mistress played by supermodel Kate Upton. "The Other Woman" doesn't look like much from its trailer but the movie is quite good featuring a strong central performance from Diaz and a scene-stealing comic performance from Leslie Mann who's best known for her work in husband Judd Apatow's comedies. 

Leslie Mann, Cameron Diaz, and Kate Upton, have one thing in common, Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster Waldau, in the movie, The Other Woman. All three are the 'other woman' in their relationship with Waldau. Leslie Mann plays the wife, Cameron Diaz is mistress number one, and Kate Upton is the youngest and hottest of the the trio of woman whose lives revolve around this one narcissistic man fooling around on all of them. 

Once our trio of hero ladies come together, The Other Woman takes on a comic revenge plot as the trio takes revenge on Waldau's ladies man. It's a lot more fun than that description sounds. Leslie Mann, for one is having a ball as the wronged wife who meets and bonds with her husband's mistresses. In a rare leading role, outside of the work of her comic legend husband, Mann is a treat in The Other Woman, throwing herself headlong into physical comedy and into this comic revenge plot. 

Cameron Diaz is in the role of the straight man. Diaz reacts to Mann's craziness and Upton's hotness all while grounding the movie in a recognizable reality. It's certainly farfetched that any man could be with three woman as attractive as Mann, Diaz, and Upton in a single lifetime, but Diaz manages to make this unbelievable scenario work. She's such a pro and, when called upon, she can be just as funny as Mann and hotter than even Upton, once named the sexiest woman on the planet. 

The Other Woman is much sharper than the plot would indicate. This trio of female stars has such incredible chemistry that it doesn't matter how seemingly impossible it would be for one man to have bedded down with these three women in one lifetime. Nick Cassavetes' direction is breezy and the tone always remains fun and funny. The jokes are good and Leslie Mann earns some of the biggest laughs of her career in a career best performance. 

Movie Review The Change Up

The Change Up (2011) 

Directed by David Dobkin 

Written by Jon Lucas, Scott Moore

Starring Jason Bateman, Ryan Reynolds, Leslie Mann, Olivia Wilde

Release Date August 5th, 2011

Published August 5th, 2011 

Body switching comedies were all the rage in the 1980's. Back then George Burns became Charlie Schlatter, Judge Reinhold became Fred Savage and Dudley Moore became Kirk Cameron. Why anyone would think they could improve out on that genre gold is beyond me and yet, we have The Change Up in which Ryan Reynolds become Jason Bateman and vice versa.

Dave (Bateman) is a family man who's grown tired of his routine of diaper changes and no sex with his beautiful wife Jamie (Leslie Mann). Mitch (Reynolds) is an overgrown child who sleeps with any woman who looks at him and spends his days getting high when he isn't acting in softcore porn movies.

When the two life long friends get together for a beer and a game they end up confessing how they envy each other's lives. Unfortunately, they happen to be urinating in a magic fountain when they make their mutual confessions and the next morning they wake up with their bodies switched.

Now, Dave has to pray Mitch can go do his job at his law firm well enough to secure his promotion to partner while not neglecting his life at home with Jamie and their three kids including twin babies. Mitch, meanwhile, has nothing whatsoever at stake for Dave to screw up save for his regular Tuesday night sex-fest which Dave refuses to honor for reasons that you must experience for yourself.

The Change Up was directed by David Dobkin the director of The Wedding Crashers, a film that brought a little bit of heart to a very R-rated premise. Dobkin attempts to bring the same amount of heart and low brow humor to The Change Up but it simply doesn't work; Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds lack the magical chemistry of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson.

The problem is the character of Mitch who is such an unredeemable dirtbag he makes it impossible to care about his story arc. We are invited to empathize with him but we are never given a good reason to actually offer that empathy. It's hard to feel sorry for a guy whose biggest problem is a bad relationship with his father; played by Alan Arkin, a bad relationship that is clearly his own fault.

The R-Rated gags of The Change Up are kind of funny here and there; especially funny is Reynolds who finds himself in the worst possible situations with women. After the body switch poor Dave has to avoid cheating on his wife with one of Mitch's women and has to fight off sex with Olivia Wilde, which is a Herculean task.

I'm not going to tell you that The Change Up isn't funny; there are a number of big laughs spread throughout the film. The problem is a story that requires you to sympathize with a character, Mitch, who is not sympathetic and who, when played by Bateman, is an idiot and a jerk without being a funny idiot jerk.

Movie Review: 17 Again

17 Again (2009) 

Directed by Burr Steers 

Written by Jason Filardi 

Starring Zac Efron, Matthew Perry, Leslie Mann, Thomas Lennon, Michelle Trachtenberg 

Release Date April 17th, 2009 

Published April 18th, 2009 

Zac Efron is a star. Granted, his fanbase hasn't passed the 6th grade yet but still. The kid has got It, that indefinable quality. That thing that draws people to you and makes them want to follow you wherever you go. Zac Efron has that talent and when he masters it he will be a huge star, 6th Grade and up.

17 Again stars Zac Efron as Mike who in High School was captain of the basketball team on the fast track to a scholarship, college and who knows from there. Then, his girlfriend Scarlett, played as a teen by Allison Miller, tells him she's pregnant. Mid-game Mike throws it all away and leaves to be with Scarlett.

20 years later and 2 kids later Mike, now played by Matthew Perry, is miserable. He regrets walking out of that game and not getting his scholarship. Having immediately taken a miserable job right out of high school, he finds himself a sales driod at a pharmaceutical company where he is passed over for promotions by people just out of college.

His misery has cost him his marriage and kids. Scarlett (Leslie Mann) resents being treated as the reason Mike is a failure. Thus, she has started divorce proceedings. His kids, 17 year old Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg) and 16 year old Alex (Sterling Knight) are basically strangers. She's dating the high school bully while Alex is getting beat up by said bully.

Tossed out of the house, Mike is staying with his best pal from high school Ned (Thomas Lennon), a nerd turned multi-millionaire nerd. Ned sleeps in a replica Speeder from Stars Wars, what does that tell you. He too is somewhat irritated by Mike's sadsack qualities but is thankfully more tolerant than most.

One day when Mike goes to his old High School to see his kids he meets a kindly janitor (Brian Doyle Murray) and confesses he would give anything to do it all over again. Later, seeing the janitor on the ledge of a bridge in a heavy rainstorm, Mike races to stop the old man only to fall in the river himself. The next morning he finds he is 17 Again only he didn't go back in time.

Now, he has the chance to be the Big Man on Campus again while really getting to know his two kids and see what modern high school is like. Oh, and then there is Scarlett and some very awkward moments where the word cougar and and the vulgar term Milf are uttered. Ugh.

Ok, so the movie 17 Again is not a very original or smart movie. You can get that quite easy from my description. And yet, I still recommend it. Yes, I recommend 17 Again. I do it because Zac Efron is a star. The kid comes into his own in this movie. He has presence, charisma and a terrific talent for self deprecating humor.

The self deprecation can be deceiving among the very good looking. For some it can seem condescending. For Efron it's an effortless goofball quality that plays very genuine. Indeed there is an earnestly unaffected quality to Efron in this film that is missing from the skill-less High School Musical films.

Those movies were directed with a minimum of talent for storytelling and character development. Director Burr Steers on the other hand has little to rely on other than storytelling and character development and thus coaxes from Efron a performance that carries 17 Again over even the largest of pitfall cliches.

Do not be mistaken, 17 Again is far from great. It's far too pat and predictable to break out of its genre constrictions. It comes down to Efron entirely to make this work and that he pulls it off is a true test of his talent and star power. He may have become well known thanks to High School Musical but Zac Efron becomes a star in 17 Again.

Movie Review: Drillbit Taylor

Drillbit Taylor (2008) 

Directed by Steven Brill

Written by Seth Rogen

Starring Owen Wilson, Leslie Mann, Danny McBride 

Release Date March 21st, 2008

Published March 21st, 2008

There are three different movies going amidst the chaos of the new comedy Drillbit Taylor. One is a retreaming of producer Judd Apatow and his writer pal Seth Rogan and their style of raunchy, genital based humor. Another is an Owen Wilson movie starring Wilson in his usual charming rogue comic persona. The last is the most distasterous, an Adam Sandler movie. Stephen Brill, Adam Sandler’s pal and director of Little Nicky and Mr. Deeds, attempts to force the disparate work of Apatow/Rogan, Owen Wilson and Brill’s brand of the Sandler schtick, sans Sandler, into Drillbit Taylor and the result is utterly brutal.

Owen Wilson stars as the title character in Drillbit Taylor, a homeless criminal who accepts a position as a bodyguard for three nerdy High School freshman being bullied by a nasty senior. Nate Hartley, Troy Gentile and David Dorfman play the desperate nerds Wade, Ryan and Emmit who need protection from Filkins (Alex Frost) who has decided to make their lives hell. Offering their whole allowances week after week in exchange protection, the best bodyguard they could afford is Drillbit who claims to be an ex-military ranger and hides his homelessness.

Initially, Drillbit just wants to rob the boys and sets about stealing their stuff under the guise of helping them. Eventually however, after seeing the boys get brutalized, he decides to train them to take care of themselves. His methods are a joke but damned if they don’t give the boys the confidence to stand up to Frost leading to an inevitable final confrontation.

As often is the case my description brings order to a plot where little order exists. Drillbit Taylor stops and starts and sputters through nearly two hours of unfunny violence and cruelty. The script by Seth Rogan and Kristofer Brown plays as if half finished, filled as it is with cliches like the clueless parents and uncaring teachers, just the kinds of characters Rogan and his co-writer pal Evan Goldberg avoided like the plague in his brilliant script for Superbad. Writing with another Apatow protege Kristofer Brown, with an alleged touch up by the legendary John Hughes, the script for Drillbit Taylor features strongly sympathetic kid characters who unfortunately are transported to the Adam Sandler movie world and are repeatedly abused until we just can’t watch, let alone laugh.

Stephen Brill’s direction has the subtlety and grace of an elephant on a frozen lake bed. Scenes slam into and bang off one another in a nearly random order early on as our heroes are kept from meeting Drillbit till the beginning of the films second act. More diversions keep Drillbit out of the school, where Wilson’s charming con man thrives ever so briefly as he romances Leslie Mann’s clueless teacher, until the third act. The third act which then takes forever to play out to a stunningly violent tet still predictable conclusion. .

What director Brill thinks is funny about the abuse he puts these poor kids through is an absolute puzzle. The film lingers on scenes of violence so ugly and scarring that that the movie loses touch with any sort of reality. Drillbit Taylor becomes merely a blunt instrument attempting to bludgeon audiences into submission. Meanwhile, as Steve Brill tries to bend Rogan and Brown’s characters and Wilson’s act to fit his Sandler movie mold it is as if Brill were bullying them into his movie.

Oddly enough dear reader, if Drillbit Taylor had starred Adam Sandler and not Owen Wilson, it might actually have come out better. Wilson simply isn’t cut out to play Drillbit who is called on to be a rude, uncaring, brute who learns to care. Wilson is better suited to playing con men with a heart of gold who can only be redeemed by a good woman as he was in Wedding Crashers or The Big Bounce (not a great movie, but not bad either). No, Drillbit is perfectly suited to Sandler’s manchild, raging id persona who can be believable as an uncaring jerk, as a brutish enforcer and as the teddy bear who learned a valuable lesson.

That is likely due to the direction of Brill who has only really known how to direct Sandler. He was at a loss trying to find a Sandler-esque character in the dismal 2005 comedy Without A Paddle and he is further at a loss in trying to turn Drillbit Taylor into a Sandler movie without Sandler. What you get when he attempts to bend Rogan, Apatow and Wilson to his will is a trainwreck of slapstick violence, low key deadpan and genital based character humor. Oh what an ugly wreck it is.

Movie Review Knocked Up

Knocked Up (2007) 

Directed by Judd Apatow

Written by Judd Apatow 

Starring Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Jason Segal 

Release Date June 1st, 2007 

Published May 30th, 2007 

Television's loss has become the film world's gain. Just think, had either of Judd Apatow's television ventures, Freaks & Geeks or Undeclared become the hit they deserved to be, we might have had to wait for The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. Thankfully, and yet sadly, both shows were mistreated by hasty network execs seeking quick hit programming, and thus Apatow was pushed to create two of the best comedies of this decade.

The 40 Year Old Virgin is a masterwork in the comedy of discomfort. For all of its lowbrow elements, Virgin thrived on delivering characters with great heart as well as great humor. Judd Apatow's new film Knocked Up shares Virgin's heart and humor but also manages to go a little deeper in analyzing its characters and their flaws. That said, for fans of the off-color humor, there are plenty of dick jokes, vomit jokes, and a birthing scene like nothing you have seen outside of a medical documentary.

Seth Rogan stars in Knocked Up as Ben, a true loser. He lives in a run down house with several of his loser friends. He smokes pot all day and is waiting while his stoner pals try and launch a website dedicated to nude scenes of Hollywood movies. He lives off the profits of a personal injury lawsuit he won several years earlier.

How Ben (Seth Rogan) managed to hook up with a woman like Allison (Katherine Heigl) is entirely about the alcohol. Without a little help from Jose Cuervo there was no way Allison and Ben would end up in bed together. Allison is a gorgeous, highly ambitious, entertainment reporter who, while celebrating her promotion at E! Entertainment television, meets Ben and somehow ends up in bed with him.

The meeting of Ben and Allison should have been for just one alcohol fueled night. However, thanks to condom troubles, Allison ends up pregnant and now she and Ben are tied for good. She has to try and find a way to make things work for the sake of her baby and he must find some way to grow up and become a father.

Written and directed by Judd Apatow, Knocked Up is a foul mouthed yet thoughtful examination of real life issues, parenthood and marriage, and the fears that many people share about growing up and becoming a real adult. The Peter Pan syndrome of many child adults has been a trend in comedies of this decade. Where Knocked Up is different from films like Grandma's Boy, Benchwarmers or Failure To Launch is that Knocked Up is smarter, funnier and features a far more talented group of performers.  

The most important difference however is creator Judd Apatow whose witty insightful writing, leavened by copious amounts of lowbrow jokes, creates characters and situations that are funnier and more believable than those in supposedly similar films. As he did on his terrific, but sadly short lived TV shows, Apatow shows in Knocked Up a level of understanding and good heartedness that often feels crass in lesser talented hands.

His comic timing, the way he mixes the lowbrow humor with the insightful character stuff is a near perfect mixture. Teaming with Seth Rogan, his longtime friend and producing partner, Apatow creates a quick, witty shorthand that never plays like two friends and an inside joke. The shorthand they have together is apparent but they keep all of the humor open and accessible.

If I have any complaint about Knocked Up it comes from a not so surprising lack of depth in the Allison character. It has long been a difficult road for male writers attempting to write fully fleshed out female characters and even a writer as talented as Judd Apatow can't avoid the pitfalls. While Katherine Heigl brings a wonderful inner life to Allison, Apatow fails to flesh out a back story and motivation for her prior to hooking up with Ben.

Why does she live in her sister's guest house? Where are her friends? We meet all of Ben's stoner buddies, but not one of Allison's friends. What about other men? Certainly a woman as beautiful as Allison has had other boyfriends or would attract other men even as she is trying things with Ben. We never learn anything about Allison other than how she reacts to Ben and to becoming a parent with him.

One reason Allison gets the short end of the stick is that this is really Ben's journey told from Ben's perspective and what an interesting perspective that is. Seth Rogan makes Ben so charming and funny that you only question how a schlub like him could win over a goddess like Allison for maybe... half the movie's runtime. But, once we are comfortable with Ben you can't help but be won over. His quick wit, his willingness to make himself the subject of the joke and his relaxed easy going charisma make him a real winner even as his lifestyle and some of his actions betray a loser.

This is the fifth time Rogan has worked with his good friend Judd Apatow, he was on both of Apatow's TV series, had a small role in Anchorman, where Apatow was an executive producer, and co-starred and earned a producer's credit on The 40 Year Old Virgin. The breezy way in which these two work together likely comes from a long honed shorthand.

Paul Rudd is the secret weapon of Knocked Up. Once seen as just another handsome actor, Rudd has in the past 3 years established himself as a tremendously funny supporting player. In Anchorman as Will Ferrell's go to guy and in The 40 Year Old Virgin Rudd showed a terrific flair for self-deprecating humor, a willingness to make jokes about him and a pitch perfect ear  for the one liner.

In Knocked Up Rudd crafts a very human and very funny character that is both self deprecating and confident. His Pete is at first the least complicated character in the film and you feel you know where his secondary storyline is heading. Thankfully, Apatow and Rudd have a number of surprises in store and Pete is much more interesting than he initially appears.

Throughout the middle portion of Knocked Up, as we are getting close with Ben and Allison, we get some very interesting and insightful moments with Pete and his wife, Allison's sister, Debbie played by Leslie Mann. The marriage of Pete and Debbie is counterpoint to Ben and Allison's burgeoning romance and the two relationships are a commentary on one another in a very unique way.

Finally, in a tiny, almost insignificant role, Saturday Night Live star Kristin Wiig is a terrific scene stealer. Playing one of Allison's bosses at the E! Network, Wiig plays a variation on one of her SNL characters, one who feels she must top any story with one of her own. The subtle brilliance of Wiig's performance is almost so low key you could miss it. Pay attention when she is on, you are guaranteed some big laughs.

Yes, Knocked Up is often foul and features a good deal of low humor. However, mixed within the lowest common denominator stuff is a true heart and a great head. The film is warmer and truer than most of the films Hollywood releases in any year, not just comedies. Knocked Up is a terrifically funny movie packed with talented performers and a creator who is a star on the rise for many years to come. As good as both The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up are, I feel Judd Apatow will only get more interesting as he matures. His best work may be yet to come. 

Movie Review Stealing Harvard

Stealing Harvard (2002) 

Directed by Bruce McCulloch

Written by Peter Tolan

Starring Jason Lee, Tom Green, Leslie Mann, Dennis Farina, Megan Mullally, Richard Jenkins, John C. McGinley

Release Date September 13th, 2002 

Published September 12th, 2002 

In Freddy Got Fingered, Tom Green broke every rule of good filmmaking. In doing so, he created one of the more inept films in history. On the other hand, Green should be commended for one of the boldest attempts at comedy we've ever seen. To his credit, he put himself on the line, and though he failed spectacularly, the attempt was brave and bold. If only his new film Stealing Harvard had taken some of the risks that Green did in Freddy Got Fingered, rather than churning out yet another market-tested demographically- safe comedy.

Stealing Harvard stars View Askew legend Jason Lee as John Plummer, a soon-to-be-married medical supply salesman. Years ago, John made a promise to his niece that if she got into college, he would pay for it. In the meantime, John met and fell in love with Elaine (Leslie Mann). They were engaged and agreed to get married when they accumulated enough money to buy a house. It is no surprise then that as soon as John has enough money to get married, he finds out his niece has been accepted to Harvard and needs money.

From here, the film tweaks one of my movie pet peeves. A character can easily dispel a difficult situation by simply telling the truth, but doesn't because of the plot. There is absolutely no reason for John not to tell Elaine about his problem, except that if he does there wouldn't be a movie. I can't stand this trope, it's a plague inflicted by lazy, hack screenwriters of the world.

Therefore, instead of simply telling the truth, John enlists his buddy Duff (Green) who suggests they steal the money. After a series of outlandish robbery attempts and bids to cut deals with lowlifes, John finally comes clean with Elaine, who has the brilliant idea to steal from her father (who is also John's hateful boss (Dennis Farina). She could just ask her dad for the money, and he would likely give it to her ,despite his hatred of her fiancée, but if she did that we wouldn't have the ridiculous climax and tacked on a happy ending.

Director Bruce Mcculloch, formerly of Kids In The Hall, may not have much of an eye for story, but he does manage a light quick tone and a few solid laughs. Lee is solid though some of the material is beneath his talent. Green, once again playing himself, draws some of the biggest laughs. He has an amazing talent for physical humor, and because he is so unpredictable, the comic potential of his character is attention grabbing.

Stealing Harvard never had a chance to be a good film. Coming from the big studio system, this film was engineered with demographics ahead of script. Screenwriter Peter Tolan writes as if he was creating the marketing campaign as he was creating the story. It is truly a shame, with the talent there was a very funny movie to be made. Stealing Harvard just wasn't it.

Movie Review: Welcome to Marwen

Welcome to Marwen (2018) 

Directed by Robert Zemeckis 

Written by Robert Zemeckis, Caroline Zemeckis 

Starring Steve Carell, Leslie Mann, Merritt Wever, Janelle Monae, Eiza Gonzalez, Gwendoline Christie

Release Date December 21st, 2018 

Published December 20th, 2018

Welcome to Marwen is a cringe-inducing drama about a man who suffered a terrible, tragic beating and reclaims his identity through art. There is a good movie to be made of this concept, but this isn’t it. Perhaps the documentary made about this story, called Marwencol, is that movie. I haven’t seen that doc unfortunately, and so I can only judge this story based on this movie and ugh, it’s not an easy sit. 

Not long prior to when this story is set, Mark Hogancamp (Steve Carell), was brutally attacked outside of a bar in his small New York town. He was left in a coma and the subsequent traumas included losing his memory of anything that happened prior to the attack and losing the ability to draw, a long time passion. As we meet Mark he is indulging in his fantasy world, known as Marwen, wherein he is a heroic World War 2 pilot who is rescued from the Nazis by a group of gun toting women who are mythic representations of the real women in Mark’s life. 

Marwen is Mark’s at home art installation where he uses 12 inch dolls to represent himself and the women in his life. There is Roberta (Merritt Wever), a kindly hobby shop owner who helps Mark obtain his dolls and supplies, Julie (Janelle Monae), Mark’s former physical therapist, Carlalla (Eiza Gonzalez), a co-worker of Mark’s at a local bar, and Anna (Gwendoline Christie), Mark’s visiting nurse. There are also two other fantasy characters in Marwen but we will get to them as they are both troublesome. 

There will soon be a new character in Marwen. Mark has just gotten a new neighbor, Nicol (Leslie Mann), who Mark is immediately smitten with. After seeing her and briefly meeting her and finding her very kind and patient, Mark goes to the hobby shop and buys a doll on which he projects her image. He even names the doll Nicol and begins to position her romantically with his doll avatar Hoagie. Here’s where the cringing begins and does not let up in Welcome to Marwen. 

Welcome to Marwen is quite loosely based on the life story of the real Mark Hogancamp, a life that has already been rendered in a well-reviewed documentary. Much of the other details are inventions of Zemeckis and writer Caroline Thompson who might have been better advised to stick closer to the real story. The invented romantic aspirations of Mark are creepy and cringe-y and render him difficult to take. 

The real Mark Hogancamp never had a Nicol, he named his characters and his town after his ex-wife, who was long out of the picture before he was attacked and a good friend whom he had no romantic designs on. The real Mark Hogancamp, on some level, understands that he’s not in a place where romance is right for him. As portrayed in this movie, Mark is a true weirdo whose fixation on Nicol has the earmarks of creepy stalker behavior, something I am sure was not intended in this supposedly uplifting story. 

I will put it to you dear reader, a strange man you’ve only just met begins to fixate on you, purchases a doll that he makes to look like you, begins to have that doll in a romance with a doll that looks like him, are you cool with that? I haven’t mentioned that he also has a few pairs of Nicol's shoes that he likes to wear and that is arguably the least creepy thing happening here. Again, the movie doesn’t intend any of this to be creepy but the way it is crafted on screen makes it unintentionally, off-puttingly, creepy. 

The movie doesn’t do much of anything to make Mark likable. Other than casting the innately likable Steve Carell, the film portrays Mark as awkward, humorless, childlike, a poor dresser, prone to violent attacks of fantasy, and a hermit. The women in his life indulge all of these qualities and reinforce them to a degree that goes beyond kindness and into the realm of fantasy where most of them only exist. The female characters in Welcome to Marwen are mostly the invention of the filmmakers and are not part of the real story as portrayed in the documentary, or so I have been told. 

Speaking of fantasy characters, there is another controversial inclusion in Welcome to Marwen. Diane Kruger voices a character named Deja who is the one character in the film universe that is not based on any of the other characters in the movie. Mark describes Deja as the Belgian Witch of Marwen, a woman so deeply in love with Hoagie that she makes his other potential love interests vanish. 

Deja is a supremely clumsy metaphor for addiction. She wears a bright blue glove that is the same color as the pain medication that Mark has been abusing. It’s hinted that Mark’s drinking problem, another addiction, was what drove away the wife he can only recall from photographic evidence and the fact that Mark was drunk the night he got beat up is part of his notion that he may have deserved the beating he received. By vanquishing Deja, Mark is symbolically vanquishing his addiction. If only life were so simple as defeating a doll. .

I debated whether to include a discussion of the other character in Marwen but I will mention it. In yet another creepy and tone deaf detail, Zemeckis includes a scene of Mark indulging in his pastime of watching his favorite porno actress, Suzette, who is portrayed by Zemeckis’ wife Leslie (Eww!). Mark likes Suzette so much that he made her a doll character in Marwen and when Nicol asks about her, Mark is not hesitant about explaining her origin in yet another cringe-y bit of tin-eared dialogue. 

It’s a shame all of this goes down this way because some of Welcome to Marwen isn’t completely terrible. The film uses some wonderful technical wizardry to bring Mark’s art to life. Mark doesn’t just play with these dolls, he poses them and takes photos of them that are genuine works of art. The film even builds to Mark’s art exhibit. As we watch Mark work, his art is alive and moving around and having dialogue and it’s all rather inventive looking.

This could be a device that deepens the story and creates an artful insight into Mark’s troubled, damaged, mind but as played by all involved in Welcome to Marwen, the dolls are yet another clumsy metaphorical device. They are there to deliver exposition and give simple metaphoric representations of Mark’s mental state. It doesn’t help that Zemeckis uses the dolls to deliver yet another creepy punchline regarding Mark; he occasionally poses his female dolls topless. Bearing in mind that these are dolls based on people in his life, it plays as another creepy and entirely unnecessary detail that the filmmakers seem to think is charming and funny. 

From what I understand about the documentary, none of what Zemeckis puts into the movie is true of the real Mark Hogancamp. He might be a creepy pervert but from what I have read about the documentary, it appears more interested in him as an oddball character and a talented artist. The romantic plot that Zemeckis forces into the movie is a completely misguided nod to mainstream filmmaking that requires that all quirky male protagonists have a love interest, even if the character has no qualities that would attract said love interest. 

To be fair, the Nicol character, as played by Leslie Mann, never realizes she’s a love interest until a truly hard to watch scene in which she has to let him down easy. It’s a supremely hard to watch and misguided scene that had me squirming in my seat. Mark is a character that is hard enough to take without the movie so forcefully trying to be sympathetic to his misguided ideas of romance. It’s meant to be an insight into his struggle but it all just comes off as forcefully sad. 

Welcome to Marwen is a technical marvel in some ways but mostly, it’s just hard to watch. The characters are all offbeat caricatures, the dialogue is full of the kind of lazy exposition you expect from action movies not from character driven drama and while the technical wizardry is neat, it can’t make up for the many other deficiencies in the story and characters of Welcome to Marwen. 

Movie Review Funny People

Funny People (2009)

Directed by Judd Apatow 

Written by Judd Apatow 

Starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman 

Release Date July 31st, 2009

Published July 30th, 2009 

Comics have their own idiom, a way of speaking that is more often than not aggressive and abnormal. Words are their weapons and they wield them with particular expertise. Listen to comedian Patton Oswalt, a shambling, unkempt often alcohol infused comic whose word use is as precise and exacting as your average marksmen is with a high caliber rifle. The brain of the comic is different always, searching at all times for the absurd in the average, that detail that they can see that the average person misses. That brain gets a thorough and exacting examination in Funny People, Judd Apatow's adroit, mature comedy of penis jokes and honest to goodness pathos.

Adam Sandler is the star of Funny People playing a variation on his real life superstar career. His George Simmons is one of the biggest stars in the world thanks to movies like Mer-Man where he plays, you guessed it, a half man half fish and Re-Do where Sandler's soft ball like skull is placed on the body of a baby by cheesy CGI. You can sense the shame he feels over these movies, made only to line his pockets, and purchase cars he never drives and a large, Xanadu-esque mansion that he doesn't need, and one can't help but wonder if the shame applies in real life to dreck like Little Nicky or Billy Madison. Probably not, but I can dream.

The shame can be seen in George when he see's himself worshipped in the eyes of his new assistant Ira (Seth Rogan). Hired to help write jokes so George can go back to where he feels most at home, the comedy stage, Ira becomes George's only real friend, even if he won't admit it. It's a forced friendship with young Ira carrying most of the burden especially after George reveals he has a rare blood disease and may soon be dead. That's a lot for Ira to carry but he does carry it and soon Ira begins to develop his own talents and find his own comic persona through the mirror of George's age and and hard won wisdom.

Outside of his wealth and privilege, George's life is empty and impending death has only magnified the void. He now longs for all the stuff he took for granted as a younger man, things family and children. Ira helps George reconnect with his parents and sister and even a few of his comic 'friends' who are more like fellow former hostages of some unknown captor. They aren't friends, they just share the same trauma it seems and that bonds them.

The one person George really hopes to reconnect with however, is Laura, the only woman he ever really loved. Laura is now married and living in San Francisco. She comes to George after he reveals his illness and the reunion is emotional in the way one might talk to someone who dying, an exaggerated pseudo-truth that takes conversational reality to a heightened emotional realm. Yes, Laura loved him once and, in his dying state, she forgives him his indiscretions of the past but is he really the love of her life? That could just be comfort food for the dying.

Well, George will find out if Laura is for real. The last 45 minutes of Funny People is dedicated to George surviving his illness and deciding to chase the life he thinks he always wanted. What happens then is for you to discover but thanks to the exceptionally smart and true writing and direction of Judd Apatow you are in for something funny and unexpected. For those trained by The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up to expect a lot of foul humor, your training comes in handy. Apatow's verbiage is as scatological and unapologetically foul as ever. The difference is the level of sophistication in the way these words are used. Comics use foul language in such a secondary, comfortable manner that it's less natural when they don't use them.

Adam Sandler has shown in the past that beneath the juvenile mask is an immensely talented actor. He simply cannot often enough restrain his id and allow that talent some time in the sun. In Funny People the mask is off and the talent shines like never before. His George is a stunningly bitter, brusque and off-putting guy who makes no apologies for being repugnant. He is fully conscious of his disgust for himself and in finding death he turns that disgust toward whatever human target is close by. As in his shame for his movies, George loathes the people who love them as much as she loathes himself for making them love him. He lives the old Groucho Marx maxim "I would never be a part of a club that would have me as a member".

Sandler's performance in Funny People is so raw and remarkable that you must wonder how true it all is to the real life of Adam Sandler. Thankfully, in real life Sandler appears to be happily married with children and close friends. It's very likely however, that Sandler knows a George Simmons and shares a deep sympathy with him. Sandler comes at this role with such ferocity and authentic self-loathing and contempt for the world that it just feels real. Then there is the blurring of the lines when George/Adam criticizes his terrible movie roles and that blurring of the lines becomes an uncanny valley between real life and the funny fiction of Funny People. 

As for Seth Rogen, I loved how Rogen's Ira represents all the hope and joy that has seemingly slipped away from jaded George and the way that Ira's youth and enthusiasm enlivens the mentor-student relationship of Geore and Ira. Rogen plays Ira as his usual foul-mouthed man-child, the persona he has perfected in his short but fast rising career. However, Rogen and Apatow take great care to make Ira the heart of the story and use the character as a mirror to highlight the best and worst of George while deepening both characters through their growth together as friends and colleagues. It's a dynamite dynamic and the chemistry between Rogen and Sandler is outstanding. 

With Adam Sandler delivering a career best performance and Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow showing newfound maturity and complexity, Funny People becomes one of the best movies you will see all year. Funny People is also another maddening symbol of how incredibly talented Adam Sandler can be when he wants to be. It makes me dislike Sandler more when he makes terrible comedies because I have seen a movie like this and I can see how talented he is. It's frustrating to watch him make some of the worst movies in the world when he's capable of making movies like this.