MOVIE 43
US, 2012, 94 minutes, Colour.
Dennis Quaid, Greg Kinnear, Common, Kate Winslet, Hugh Jackman, Emma Stone, Kieran Culkin, Richard Gere, Kate Bosworth, Terrence Howard, Elizabeth Banks, Josh Duhamel, Seth Mc Farlane, Liev Schreiber, Naomi Watts, Anna Faris, Chris Pratt, Justin Long, Gerard Butler, Jason Sudeikis, Bobby Cannavale, Uma Thurman, Halle Berry, Stephen Merchant, Leslie Bibb, Kristen Bell, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse?, Patrick Warburton, Jimmy Bennett, Seann William Scott, Johnny Knoxville.
Directed by:
Bob Odenkirk
Elizabeth Banks
(segment "Middleschool Date")
Steven Brill
(segment "iBabe")
Steve Carr
(segment "The Proposition")
Rusty Cundieff
(segment "Victory's Glory")
James Duffy
(segment "Super Hero Speed Dating")
Griffin Dunne
(segment "Veronica")
Peter Farrelly
(segments "The Pitch", "The Catch" and "Truth or Dare")
Patrik Forsberg
(segment "Tampax")
Will Graham
(segment "Homeschooled")
James Gunn
(segment "Beezel")
Brett Ratner
(segment "Happy Birthday")
Jonathan van Tulleken
(segment "Machine Kids")
Movie 43 is an odd film, generally rejected by critics. Perhaps it should have been called Movie 00, the response of many of the audiences.
The film begins with a potentially good idea. Denis Quaid is a writer who comes to make his pitch to a producer, played by Greg Kinnear. The producer seems to be the kind, patient type and begins to listen to the rather frantic pitch made by the writer. At this point, the first of the stories is visualized.
While this story has its vulgar tone, it is funny. It is played somewhat seriously by Hugh Jaclman and Kate Winslet, giving it a stronger impact. Kate Winslet portrays a rather haughty personality dressing for a dinner date, which turns out to be Hugh Hackman. However, he breezes in with a pair of testicles on his neck. He is oblivious of this. Kate Winslet is concerned that she is seeing things and is trying to test out whether it is real or not. Because she plays it so intensely and seriously, the joke is acceptable and the short film works quite well – if you enjoy that kind of thing.
The second story works well enough as tongue-in-cheek presentation of home schooling. Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber portray parents entertaining dinner guests, explaining how they educate their older adolexcent son, Kevin, at home. However, the idea of to education is take all the clichés of bullying, harsh treatment and humiliation that school gives rise to and impose them on their son. This is all visualized and is amusing because it is played straight and briefly.
As the film goes on, the writer becomes even more frantic, pulling a gun on the producer to force him to go to the boss to get a contract signed. At this stage the producer becomes frantic and joins in the rather crude jokes and tenor of the whole film.
It is surprising that Peter Farrelly, director of tongue-in-cheek films with more than their share of low humour and vulgarity (There’s Something about Mary, Shallow Hal), was able to gather so many writers who were willing to tell dirty jokes stories or scatological stories and then to find a range of directors to film them.
Farrelly himself directs the framework as well as several of the stories.
In filming stories like this, the danger is that many of them become ludicrous, exaggerating, of course. They also become somewhat disgusting, sometimes few holds barred.
As intended, some of the stories defy belief, especially the scatological story of Anna Faris and Chris Pratt and their sexual relationship. This is also true of a sequence with Halle Berry and Stephen Merchant and an increasingly bizarre series of bets and dares.
Elizabeth Banks directs a story with Chloe Grace Moretz visiting some friends and experiencing her first period, with some embarrassment for her and the awkward reaction of a young friend, his older brother and their father. There is also a story of advertising using a blow-up sex doll. It is mainly a board meeting which becomes more absurd as it proceeds, with Richard Gere, quite serious, presiding and Kate Bosworth trying to give female and feminist objections.
There are some credits and, suddenly, there follows yet another story, a couple and the tensions between them especially because of the man’s pet cats, Beezul, a cartoon cat. The couple are played by Josh Duhamel and Elizabeth Banks. The film again ends with absurdity in the relationship between Josh Duhamel and the cat.
It is difficult to gauge who exactly is the target audience for this film. Because it is generally low brow comedy, audiences with some taste will probably find it far too much. Perhaps it is a big risky to say that audiences without any taste will enjoy it. Perhaps what the film makers wanted was a suspension of good taste or patronage by those who delight in naughty shocks.
