Who's to Judge?

Rating: 7/10 (17 January 2007)

There are two plots going on in this film. The first is like the movie Clockwise or a bad dream which you have probably had in which you have a deadline to meet in some other place but every possible obstacle seems to prevent you from getting there. Part of the dynamic is that at every stage the protagonists are faced with the choice: do I keep trying to get there or do I give up now. Every time you choose to keep trying the stakes are raised, so that eventually the incentive to quit, no matter how strong, cannot outweigh the investment made in carrying on. "We've come this far; we can't quit now" trumps every objection, even those based in breaking the law or standards of propriety.
Once the Hoovers reach their destination, a new plot situation takes over. Now we are at the competition where our hero (or in this case our heroine Olive)is the underdog facing overwhelming competition. Ah, we've seen this situation before, haven't we? Rocky, Cool Runnings, The Mighty Ducks, Seabiscuit, Sister Act II?
The thing is that while the road part of the plot was going on the assumptions which support the competition plot have been steadily undermined. At the start the father Richard represents the hackneyed standard American attitude to winning and losing: life is about winning and losing and if you're a loser you have only yourself to blame. Again we see this in Frank's suicide attempt because he might not be the number one Proust man in America. We see it also in Dwayne's love of Nietzsche (the philosopher who said that winners have the moral high ground) and his determination to cause himself pain in order to get into flight school. Richard supports Dwayne, but it doesn't take long for us to start to really dislike Richard and what he stands for. Our dislike for Richard makes us like the grandfather more (more than we probably should, as we ultimately realize) because his character is so strongly contrasted with Richard's.
By the time they get to the beauty contest Richard's philosophy has been beaten to bits. Both Dwayne and Frank have come to the fore as spokesmen for a new philosophy which we hear in the line, delivered to try to persuade Sheryl to pull Olive from the contest, "I don't want THEM judging her." There is no reason to submit yourself to the judgment of others, especially as their qualifications to judge may be dubious. In the face of the new philosophy, we are not rooting for a cliché ending.
Clearly, this film is not a typical comedy; indeed, I would recommend that people go into it not expecting any humour at all. People who are painfully struggling with the fundamental principles of their lives are not all that funny. The characters are dealt with more thoroughly, the themes considered more fully, than we usually get in comedies. The solid acting throughout keeps the viewer interested in the people, especially the heroes Frank, Dwayne and Olive. I don't think that it should be ranked as one of the top 250 films of all time, but then isn't the IMDb top 250 just another beauty pageant? Does it matter whether this is number 251? Not really. I think the film tells its story and makes its point which is all that should matter. Check it out.