scores a bit, misses a bit

Rating: 5/10 (12 January 2009)

This is an interesting comedy; it dips its feet into the waters of the most ridiculous, yet never really ceases to take itself seriously. Perhaps that's because the bio-pictures of which it is a spoof are themselves so insufferably self-serious. This one pokes fun at most of them, as far as I can tell. The hippy period of Bobby Darin is spoofed through a Dylan-esquire song by Cox, he shows up on acid at a kiddie party like Jim Morrison in "The Doors". But most of it is from the more recent duo, "Walk the Line" and "Ray." Unfortunately a lot of the spoof is pretty obvious -- he tears up some bathrooms in an excessive way, and he has a "smell blind" condition that troubles him. Also like Ray Charles he has a huge number of children, but this film actually shows them all.
John C. Reilly is the main element that holds the thing together and keeps it from being boring. He did a good job at conveying a rockabilly hard-ass and the character grew more appealing as he grew older. Still this is all in a formula outside of the one that the film is spoofing -- the increasingly obvious and by the numbers Judd Apatow sentimentalist approach, rapidly growing into John Hughesian territory.
The songs themselves are rarely funny in and of themselves, although that could be a plus -- like the famous "Spinal Tap", these are songs that you could *almost* imagine being real hits. I really laughed at the song about little people and Cox's advocacy for little person rights, so obviously an opportunistic ploy. Most of the songs could have been just a bit funnier though, and I wouldn't have minded. The film in general is more like to bring a smile or a chuckle than a good hearty laugh, so I would recommend it only with some reservations.