|
THE
trick here is adjective selection. (Don’t try this at
home, kids, it can be dangerous.) Is Get Smart
“incredibly” funny? No, not hardly. “Incredibly”
connotes that oxygen-deprived state of strangled panic,
when the laugh has become your enemy and strives to kill
you.
So is it
“pretty” funny? Um, it’s more than “pretty,” because
there’s a tinge of patronization to “pretty,” as if the
commentator is annoyed that something so primitive and
vulgar goosed him into grins. Equally true of “sort of”
or “kind of” or “occasionally.” What about
“intermittently” funny? Nah. It’s more than
intermittent, if not quite “consistently” funny. Is it,
then, “rather” funny. No. Sounds British. The reviewer
is just back from doing his Rhodes work at Oxford and
wants everybody to know.
It’s
“darned” funny?
El
perfecto! Bull’s-eye! No wonder we won a Pulitzer!
“Damned” would be too strong, but “darned” fits the
movie’s innocence, its earnestness (qualities of star
Steve Carell, as well), its pleasing lack of
sophistication, its good nature.
Based on
the TV comedy hit of the ’60s—when James Bond dominated
the pop universe and imitations and parodies were the
order of the day—the movie is slick and smooth and ticks
along primarily on the excellent chemistry between
Carell and Anne Hathaway in the famed Don Adams-Barbara
Feldon roles as Agent 86 and his far more capable female
partner, 99, in the employ of C.O.N.T.R.O.L., a comic
twist on O.U.T.O.F.C.O.N.T.R.O.L. (the CIA).
It must
be said, for viewers who’ve seen the original, that the
chemistry between the two has been slightly adjusted.
There was never much sexual tension between the original
characters because Adams’ performance as Maxwell Smart
was so stylized he didn’t quite seem real; it was a
character sketch based on a funny, stretched-thin voice
delivered through a perpetual grimace, usually
commenting on its owner’s behavior. It was a parody that
knew, wisely, that it was a parody. Carell is somehow
more human than Adams, which works because a half-hour
is just long enough for a sketch character, but close to
two hours is way too long. We need recognizable
behaviors and psychologies if we’re going to stick with
a character that long, and Carell’s more neurotic and
ironic Max works out well, as does his love of and
attempt to woo the beautiful 99.
As for
Hathaway, she’s a revelation. Those eyes are still as
big as Beemer hubcaps and just as dark and merry, but
she’s able to show more edge than her previous
goody-goody roles have allowed. She’s unimpressed with
Max because she’s so much tougher and experienced, and
his ninnying literalizing frequently gets on her nerves.
Also, whoever doubled for her in the stunt work—dances,
fights, maybe there was more than one—did extremely
well, providing an athleticism that stands in amusing
counterpoint to Carell’s fall-down, go-boom antics.
Also,
Dwayne Johnson has a nice turn as a good-natured über-Agent
23, who casually beats the stuffing out of everyone,
then smiles broadly and says, “Let’s go to lunch.” Masi
Oka (Hiro from TV’s Heroes) and Nate Torrence are
hysterical as Bruce and Lloyd, two nerdboy technicians
oppressed by the more macho C.O.N.T.R.O.L. agents.
One
irony is that the least effective jokes in the movie are
derived from the TV show. The telephone-booth entrance
to C.O.N.T.R.O.L. headquarters (in the Smithsonian’s old
Castle building), the “cone of silence” that Max insists
on even if everyone else considers it a loser, the phone
in the shoe. These are mandatory, one supposes, to the
franchise, but director Peter Segal doesn’t get much out
of them. He has much better luck with his cast, in
particular Carell, with his uncanny ability to project
deadpan, dunderheaded earnestness and logic unimpinged
by real-world considerations. As well, the action set
pieces are played for laughs with just enough excitement
underneath to give you a rooting interest in their
outcomes.
Is there
a plot? I can hardly remember. Oh, yes, now it’s coming
back, something stolen from Bond, in which the nefarious
K.A.O.S., represented by imperious Terence Stamp and
Borat’s pal Ken Davitian, is stockpiling nuclear weapons
to extort billions from the West. As a demonstration,
they plan to nuke Los Angeles (no “How could they tell?”
jokes, please). The story whirls Max and 99 from what
would have to be called the C.O.N.T.R.O.L. control room
to Russia to LA with a big fight sequence in each.
Unlike
in the series, this Max actually kills people, not that
the movie makes anything of it. Meanwhile, back at
headquarters, the Rock is beating up nerds and the Chief
is played with exactly the right touch of compassion and
steel by Alan Arkin.
As I
say: darned funny! Weightless as froth, forgettable as
dew, but pretty darned funny.
|
