AV Club reviewed the recent Criterion release of this, and I generally like screwball comedies, so I thought I’d give it a try.
It’s good, but it’s not… it’s not Some Like It Hot good. The first half of the movie feels like it’s trying too hard to be wacky, using silly characters like the Wienie King. The relationship between the two leads is never a good one, which is my primary problem with the movie. I was never able to identify with the male lead. I didn’t care much for the female lead either. Claudette Colbert was a bankable leading lady, and considered to be an attractive woman. I didn’t find her attractive (although that may have been the hairstyle) and I didn’t care for her performance especially. She did fine with the material she was given, but that material didn’t give her an opportunity to really shine. I still didn’t get a strong sense of character from her - or motivation. This is the biggest problem with the movie. The premise is completely ridiculous. A comedic situation doesn’t start from an outlandish idea. The craziness happens in escalations, or at least it seems like a reasonable course of action. Here, she jumps straight into the strangest idea, something no one would ever think of. And no one seems to question it.
The male lead is… lumpy. It’s hard to find the right word for it. The character doesn’t seem to have any real redeeming traits. He chases the girl, but that seems to be it. Does it make him a good person? Since he’s so dislikable most of the time, it doesn’t seem to matter.
Luckily, the second half of the movie improves drastically, thanks to Rudy Vallee appearing. His character is much more charming, and so well defined that it’s suddenly clear where the movie is going. He gets all sorts of good lines.
The ending is a sticking point for many people. It comes out of nowhere, and it implies that just about everyone in the movie is just as shallow as possible.
Perhaps I was spoiled by being such a fan of Some Like It Hot. I compare all of my screwball comedies to what is probably one of the best comedies of all time, and it’s hard to say that anything similar can compare.
No comments:
Post a Comment