Das lange Elend

Take an obligatory American - Jeff Goldblum - a gorgeous nurse (Emma Thompson), a script by Richard Curtis, long before going on to pen Four Weddings and a Notting Hill; get Mel Smith to direct and rubber-faced Rowan Atkinson to play the villain of the piece. The result is The Tall Guy, probably the greatest comedy of 1989.

I remember going to see it twice at the time and laughing all the way through it, amazed that British comedies could be this good.

It has a huge amount going for it with intelligence, cracking lines and some highly stylised photography by Adrian Biddle.

Curtis' semi-autobiographical script is based on his own days as a fall guy for Atkinson and the result is well worth a look.

Jeff Goldblum plays a gawky, downtrodden American actor living in England who plays straight man to an obnoxious, unpleasant comedian. Rowan Atkinson is the obnoxious, unpleasant comedian who torments Jeff. Emma Thompson is a pretty, deadpan nurse who gives Jeff's life hope and meaning when he falls in love with her and vice versa. After parting ways with Atkinson, Jeff lands the lead role in "Elephant!", a musical version of "The Elephant Man", in which he plays, of course, the Elephant Man. Jeff's eternal happiness is nearly thwarted by a cute co-star who threatens his romance with Emma Thompson. Will Jeff come out on top? Of course he does. This isn't "The Fly" after all.

Too long but still very funny, with Jeff well cast as the title character. Atkinson is a great antagonist and Emma Thompson has her moments of inspired deadpan humor. And of course, the actual "Elephant" sequences are a riot.

"Vengeance shall BE MINE!" Jeff as Dexter King, AKA: The Tall Guy.

Wow -- talk about polarization. I watched this 15 year old movie for the first time this past weekend and I thought it was terrific, gentle fun. Then I looked at the comments and found that it was tied with "Citizen Kane" with some viewers, but with "Plan 9 from Outer Space" with the rest. What is there in this little film that should polarize everyone so?

Rowan Atkinson behaving like a creep? Emma Thompson's 15-years-ago tush? Jeff Goldblum doing a pretty nice job as a vague almost-actor? I think I will join the polarization here and state that I choose not to go to a party with those "one star" people. I'll bet they just discuss poetry and stuff.

How did I like this movie? Let me count the ways? 1. Funniest damned sex scene I can recall. 2. Landlady-Carmen and friends -- what do you people mean, unnecessary character? 3. "Elephant!" Is that show coming soon to a theatre near me? 4. Weak ending -- who cares?

The Tall Guy is one of my all-time favorites. One's taste in comedies is a highly personal thing, and not everyone will find this movie to their taste, but if you like the inimitable flavor of British humor (as I do) and enjoy Jeff Goldblum and Emma Thompson, you will probably find this movie to be extremely rewarding -- that is, hilarious and, perhaps, a bit touching.

It's got its flaws, of course. There are plenty of spots where nothing really happens, the music is pretty uneven, and a few gags fall flat. There are one or two key plot points that are a little hard to follow (especially the scene with Emma Thompson on the television). And surprisingly, the last quarter or so turns a bit grim, and comes a bit close to losing sight of the whimsicality which is so much of this movie's charm.

But I'll gladly put up with all that for what this movie has to offer. It's incredibly hard to make a good comedy, and all too many comedies nowadays are either too tame, or too scatological...too cruel, or too meek...too earnest, or too smug in their irony. The Tall Guy proves that there is ground between these extremes, and what fertile ground it is! I don't know if one could make this movie in America; the entire film is permeated with a uniquely British sensibility that makes it irresistible. And in the midst of all this, Jeff Goldblum is absolutely spot-on as the bemused American; his facial expressions and reaction shots in this movie are priceless. It's a pity that so many of his recent roles have been in action movies; at his best, Goldblum is a fantastic comic actor, and this movie depends completely on his charm, wit, and expressiveness.

One of the centerpieces of the movie, by the way, is a musical based on "The Elephant Man". It's a tour-de-force of parody, brilliantly satirizing the tastelessnesses and mediocrities of modern musicals; indeed, I wish we could get to see even more of it.

I recently revisited The Tall Guy for the third time, watching it side-by-side with There's Something About Mary, and I can't begin to tell you how much the latter movie suffered by comparison. They have a few traits in common -- both movies revolve around the pursuit of a beautiful woman by a misanthropic-but-oddly-handsome male Jewish lead, both have a strong sexual element to their humor, and both feature a prominent handicapped character (a blind man in the Tall Guy, a man on crutches in Mary) whose misadventures are played for laughs. But where There's Something About Mary is coarse, mean, and obvious, The Tall Guy is witty, absurd, and completely good-natured -- and in my opinion, far superior.

I suspect there are a fair number of people who won't "get" The Tall Guy, and that's a shame. But if it sounds like it's on your wavelength, rent it if you can find it. It's an incredibly sweet and funny movie that is well worth the watching.

Now, I have to say that I went to see this based on the review of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, both of whom could not get through a sentence without breaking into laughter when discussing several key scenes. I had never seen either one of them behave that way before, so I went out--this is, what, twelve years ago?--and plunked down my $5 and proceeded to laugh my butt off for two hours. I found both the sex scene and the scene of the musical to be minor gems, and can't recommend this film highly enough, particularly if you are A) a Jeff Goldblum fan, B) an Emma Thompson fan C) a Rowan Atkinson fan, or D) a musical theatre aficionado. You will laugh about the musical theater scene for years to come, particularly if you think Andrew Lloyd Webber is the antichrist, as I do.