Much More than I Expected

Rating: 8/10 (28 September 2009)

This is a pretty engaging movie. For me Will Farrell is really up and down. I would generally consider him pretty lightweight. This film, however, shows that he has a great deal more range than I've given him credit for. Once we accept the premise of the whole thing, he begins to engage us. His plight is certainly one of great urgency. What I enjoyed was that they didn't play it for a sense of slapstick. Some filmmakers would have used the author's touch to put him in all kinds of ridiculous situations, finding himself naked on a street, or hooked up with some street gang, or some other ludicrous thing. He come off as a truly developing character who probably does what most of us would have done. Granted, he is a quirky IRS agent with symptoms of OCD, but the story is about what happens when you begin to realize how precious life is. It's been done a million times, but here it works quite well. It doesn't even matter that the writer painted himself into a corner because the joy of the movie is watching Farrell's character commandeer his ship. Emma Thompson's character is just a bit much; so is Dustin Hoffman, but they are certainly interesting.