The
truest slippery slope in all of film might just be the concept of the
comedic drama (or dramatic comedy depending on how you look at it)
and its constantly shifting allegiances between the two genres. If
its too humorous, it becomes too funny to be taken seriously and
devolves into just another forgettable comedy that fails to get its
more serious aspects across to the audience. If its too serious, it
fails to capture the ever coveted audience it needs to sustain any
kind of run in theaters and, ultimately, gets relegated into the
too-full-of-itself-to-enjoy type of movie most audiences not only
avoid like the Measles vaccine in Clark County, Washington but will
probably forget completely about anyway before they even manage to
leave the theater. In the case of Neil Burger's newest stab at the
genre with The Upside: well...they nailed the comedy enough, I guess.
Okay,
to be nice for the sake of people who somehow keep Kevin Hart
employed outside of stand-up, The Upside is a pretty fun movie with
enough charm to nearly sustain its run time, some entertaining
performances from the actors you would expect such work from (Nicole
Kidman, Bryan Cranston) and even manages to surprise with its
half-hearted take on a Hart-lead dramatic role. Throw in some
surprisingly heartfelt direction by the guy guilty of starting the
Divergent nonsense and some decent cinematography that feels just a
little to high in the quality department for this type of movie and
you tend to have something resembling a good time for about two
thirds of the movie. Hey, two thirds can work sometimes!
Unfortunately,
despite the mostly stellar acting involved, I was never truly
invested enough in these characters to look past the very formulaic
plot that tends to plague these kinds of productions. Is Dell (Hart)
a former lowlife trying desperately to turn his life around but stuck
in a nihilistic rut of being well-meaning but lazy? Check. Is Philip
(Cranston) totally going to get a new lease on life in a shockingly
fast way that seems to come out of nowhere and, when everything comes
full circle, kind of feel rushed and unbelievable? Check. Will they
have a big falling out over something that feels kind of pointless to
the grand scheme of the movie and make their big “breakup”
argument drag on just long enough to where the audience will start
checking their phones? Check. Regardless of the fun characters, the
movie never feels like more than a sum of its weakest parts and, when
it comes time to shelf the likes of Kidman or Cranston, these flaws
burn so brightly they blot out anything resembling the fun time you
would expect from the comedy side of this kind of equation.
As for
watching it, got anything better to do this weekend? Lego 2
(brilliantly subtitled “The Second One”) is out and likely to
absorb most of the population with children and, while its still kind
of stuck in its own slow buildup phase, Glass will likely take up
anyone interested in weird, undefined movies about people staring
seriously at stuff so...go for it if you want to see a movie most of
the normal people will probably watch because its one of the few they
can get into with minimal hassle? Hey, its not the choice I would
make to waste two hours of my life again, but I'd be lying if I
didn't say its fun parts (barely) outweighed its mediocre parts. Is
that a win in any of your categories?
Neil
Burger (The Illusionist) goes from making head trips and teen romance
to making old guy buddy comedies with too much dramatic flair with
The Upside. Desperate to remain out of prison and constantly trying
to make things right by his estranged son and ex-girlfriend,
Dell(Hart) lands a job as a medical auxiliary for Philip (Cranston),
a billionaire quadriplegic widower whose biggest flaw is he made one
big mistake the put him in a chair for the rest of his life. Where am
I supposed to go with this? Ex-Con and Billionaire become friends for
seemingly innocuous reasons that are covered up by some humor, both
get on each other's nerves and somehow bond, both break up awkwardly
because the movie was apparently becoming too entertaining and we
needed to see some drama we didn't ask for and everything gets tied
off with a neat little bow at the end that might as well have been
attached to a package marked “Friendship Conquers All”. I've
seen cornier.
My
score: 7/10. Goodbye, Albert Finney. There are some fish not meant to
be caught...
