Shocking waste of talent

Rating: 2/10 (27 February 2007)

As a fan of writer Mike White, I was really looking forward to this movie but it was so bad I'm still reeling. First let me say that the director did a great job in one respect. The film looks amazing, so hats off to the cinematographer and art director too. It's shot like a Mexican Amelie, with the same scenic eccentricity. It has a beautiful and engaging visual style and the wrestling scenes are well choreographed. Where the film falls woefully short is in the script and the casting of Jack Black. It comes over like a film that was written as a rather whimsical little oddity and then suddenly bumped up to Hollywood 'comedy' status as a vehicle for Jack Black. In so doing, any subtlety or gentle comedy that may have been present originally has been trampled by JB at his mugging, farting, sophomoric worst. I think Black has his place in film, but this sure ain't it. He plays the wrestling-mad priest with the heart of gold like something from The Dukes of Hazzard. Maybe he knows there's not a funny line to be had in the whole debacle, because he mugs and flails throughout, trying to make his perm and his fat gut work the room for him. The film itself grabs desperately for a fingerhold on funny, it'll take it any way it can get it - relying on Black's Mexican accent, random farts and a frantic soundtrack to try to bolster a story crying out for the human touch. The tacked-on 'relationships' are by-the-numbers and without a single iota of authenticity. The whole thing plays like a sketch that would have been pushing the envelope of humour at two minutes, forget two hours. I can understand children finding it fun, and adults who accompany children to movies they find funny usually get a buzz out of that, so on that basis I gave it a 2. But miscasting AND poor writing is a double whammy that no film can recover from - and I don't think the director is to blame. It's not that the lines aren't hitting the comedy mark - they just aren't funny in the first place. It's truly tragic to watch so much hard work and talent - not to mention money - go to waste. Oooh it's shocking!