PAUL
UK/US, 2011, 104 minutes. Colour.
Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jason Bateman, Kristin Wiig, John Carroll Lynch,Sigourney Weaver, Bill Hader, Blythe Danner, Joe Lo Truglio, David Koechner, Jesse Plemons, Jane Lynch, Steven Spielberg.
Voice of Seth Rogen.
Directed by Greg Mottola.
Why Paul? Well, back in the 1940s when the aliens came to Roswell, one of them crash-landed in Wyoming in the yard where a little girl and her dog, Paul, were watching. She rescued him from the ship but the US authorities impounded the alien and he got the name, Paul.
Sixty years later, he escapes and is finding his way back to Wyoming, to the mountain of Close Encounters to meet a space ship to get him home. He does look like ET more or less, though we don’t see him call home – however, in a flashback, we do hear him call Steven Spielberg in 1980 and explain that he should make a film about a stranded alien. He also claims that it was he who suggested Agent Mulder.
Paul is voiced in his cheeky, sardonic way by Seth Rogen. Paul seems not to have been isolated enough because he has absorbed a fair amount of US raunchy crassness and can be quite rude.
As you might tell, Paul is a spoof of science-fiction stories and movies.
It has been written by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who were able to spoof zombie films to great effect with Shaun of the Dead, and the police and sinister murders in a British village in Hot Fuzz. This time they have teamed up with American director, Greg Mottola (who made the Seth Rogen rude comedy, Superbad).
Pegg and Moran are Graeme and Clive, two moving-towards-middle-age-without-necessarily-leaving-adolescence-behind sci-fi geeks. They are on the trip of a lifetime attending a science-fiction conference in the US (where they meet their author idol, played by Jeffrey Tambor, who practically ignores them) and then go on the road to visit the sites of alien sightings and landings. People wonder about them and their relationship (not without reason and not without snide comment). But, off they go on a road movie, crashing into taunting rednecks’ car, and then encountering Paul who has crashed his car on the highway. Clive faints and finds it hard to accept Paul and becomes jealous of his friendship with Clive and with Ruth, the daughter of the owner of the trailer park where they hide for a night. But, they make friends.
Some Christian groups have taken offence at the portrayal of the owner and his daughter. They are rabid fundamentalist, she wearing a T-shirt with Jesus blasting Darwin with a hand-gun and denouncing evolution, and spouting anti-science, pro intelligent design, bible text fanaticism rather than argument. Clive, Graeme and Paul are not keen on God explanations. What makes this seemingly anti-religious pot-shotting more complex is that Paul has powers to heal and to raise from the dead which parallel the Gospels. Since the Gospels are part of western culture, it is not surprising that non-believers can resort to them for metaphors while they are critical of fanatical biblical interpretations.
This may offend some sensitivities – but, then, some friends who are not religious realised that they had not really noticed this as a key ingredient of the film as they watched it.
Meanwhile, back on the road, Men in Black are in pursuit of Paul, with orders from The Big Guy (unseen until the end of the film, though heard, when she appears as Sigourney Weaver with nods to Alien).
For Graeme and Clive this is a life-transforming experience – a bit less even for ardent fans.
1. Science fiction, the spoof, the use of science fiction film conventions, the references, the explicit parodies? Aliens, danger, probes, close encounters, E.T. (and Paul’s conversation with Steven Spielberg)?
2. Simon Pegg and Nick Moran, their acting together, sending up genres, the jokes, the parodies, developing characters, the plot?
3. The sci-fi conference, the fans and the types? The film becoming a road movie? The alleged sites of extraterrestrial landings, Texas, Mexico, Wyoming? The varying landscapes? The diners, the rednecks on the road, the open roads, driving, crashes, the towns? Wyoming and the mountain of close encounters? A sense of the American landscapes? The musical score?
4. The conference, Adam Shadowchild as a celebrity, Graeme and Clive and their excitement, meeting him, offering the manuscript, Shadowchild’s snobbery, washing his hands – and the contrast to his later performance, celebrating them, claiming them to be his friends?
5. Graeme and Clive, their age, experience, not married, their friendship, working together, imagination, Clive writing, Graeme sketching? The jokes about their being gay, the hotel room, Paul’s questions? Graeme and his falling in love with Ruth? Clive and his not falling in love?
6. The drive, the plans, the maps, visiting the sites, the rednecks and their insults, crashing into their car, fleeing, pursued, the crash, discovering Paul, Clive fainting, Graeme getting on well with him and accepting him?
7. Paul, his E.T. appearance, Seth Rogen’s voice, his talk, Roswell background, the prologue and the crash-landing, Tara and her experience, the death of her dog? Paul getting his name from the dog? With the authorities, passing the years, his escaping, hopes to be reconciled with his family, the pursuit? His character, his capacity for disappearance, vulgar, rude, talking with Graeme and Clive?
8. The pursuit, Lorenzo Zoil? Tough, relentless, no humour, his devices, his work with Haggard and O’Reilly? Their dithering? The need to know background, the agents listening in, searching the RV, the reaction to Paul, becoming aggressive?
9. The Big Guy, not being seen, Sigourney Weaver’s voice, tough, her demands, arrival, the confrontation, the alien landing – and her death? The line from Alien with Blythe Danner?
10. Zoil, the change, his being on-side, supporting Paul, the story of his help?
11. The trailer park, Ruth, her T-shirt and Jesus zapping Darwin, the anti-evolution stance? Her father, fundamentalist Christian faith? His talk, the righteous Christian? Ruth and her accepting Paul? Paul zapping and healing her eye? Her becoming permissive after she was zapped, Graeme and Clive being zapped? The father, his anger, his pursuit, his overhearing the agents and their criticising him?
12. Pat Stevens at the diner, her friendliness, helping the two, against the rednecks? Her turning up at the final conference?
13. Everyone meeting, the rednecks and their collapse, seeing Graeme’s drawing? The father and his shooting Graeme?
14. The miracles, healing – and the secular version of Gospel stories?
15. Tara, the prologue, her growing up, isolated, people ridiculing her, her welcoming Paul? Helping him to escape? The attack on her house and its burning?
16. The arrival in Wyoming, the close encounters mountain, the spaceships, Paul and his farewell, offering to take Tara, her going?
17. The success of the expedition and holiday, the book, the new conference, Ruth and her relationship with Graeme, the happy ending?
