Fool's Paradise

I've probably watched Always Sunny through 10 times and love satirical film, but the pacing was rough. Movie started out great, and then seemed to drag heavily in the last half. Some of the bits just got old and somethings just got played out. Plus, the film just kind of ended and didn't feel resolved at all.

I really hope we get more like this, but a little more buttoned up on the editing. I realize it's hard to make an entire movie around someone who doesn't speak, but you might need to have people speak to each other more, rather than speaking to a wall the entire time. Charlie day puts his heart and soul into it, plus Jimmi Simpson is always great. It's just a rough viewing experience.

A mute John Doe (Charlie Day) is found in a mental institution with the capacity of a five year old. He is released into LA where he is picked up by a movie producer (Ray Liotta). The producer is tired of the star of his movie and intends to use our doppelganger John Doe as a stand-in to replace his star. Lenny (Ken Jeong) is a weasel "publicist" who mistakenly calls John Doe "Latte Pronto" due to the producer's coffee demands. Latte is on his way to becoming a big Hollywood star.

This is a fascinating movie. Someday, someone will dissect this movie to determine why it's not funny. The most obvious reason is that Charlie Day is playing a mute. He has one of the most comedic voices in the world today. People laugh just by the sound of it. It's like an NBA player saying he'll play while having his hands tied behind his back. Sometimes, actors like to go 180 opposite their strength to show that they have undiscovered depths. They go against their popular narrative. In this one, he's trying to do his version of The Tramp. The character construction is too sloppy. He is literally a blank. Instead of a living breathing character, he is a hole on the screen. There is nothing there.

His nothingness may be the point. The movie is satirizing Hollywood and its nothingness quality. In that, this is not breaking any new cinematic grounds. It is ridiculous without being funny. Ken Jeong's over the top character Lenny is almost there at first until he meets Latte. There is a puzzling hole with Latte that overwhelms any chance for humor. The movie just dies.

I shouldn't have paid attention to this movie as long as I did. The premise was kind of interesting and had the potential for a mid to good plot, but it was just so chaotic without actually going anywhere.

The whole movie was just a bunch of stuff happening to this random guy who has no memories, doesn't talk, and has the intelligence of a 5 year old. Charlie Day's character, Latte Pronto, is essentially Charlie Chaplain's The Tramp. Latte has absolutely nothing going on. He doesn't interact with other characters in meaningful ways, and doesn't seem to have any thoughts, opinions, desires about the things happening around him. The plot literally happens to him and he's just along for the ride.

Which, ok, if you're gonna have an entirely blank character, then at least make the plot interesting. But the plot is not interesting. Charlie Day goes from the mental hospital to the streets of LA, then a director picks him up cause he's a dead ringer for his problematic lead, then he gets famous in a very "Step 1. Hit the streets of LA, Step 2. Become famous celebrity" kind of way. And that's essentially how the entire movie goes. He gets married, divorced, loses everything in such quick succession that I almost got whiplash.

This movie just needed something more substantial than it gave. Charlie Day's character was the perfect setup for a self discovery plot line, where he finds out who he is and/or who he wants to be through his experiences. I mean they could have had a moment at the end where he finally talks, and that would have been pretty cool. But the movie ends, and nobody important learns anything important, and nothing was accomplished, and also I didn't laugh once. Actually I did get some cleaning done between confused glances at my TV, so one thing was accomplished I guess.

This was like a very long, 98 minutes long and dragged out failed SNL sketch. I'm a fan of Charlie Day and he's a great comedian, but putting yourself in a funny film and choosing not to use your comedic trademark funny voice is what failed this film. And that's too bad, as it started out good, not laugh out loud good, but constant smiling and entertaining good. But you can only go so far on silent charm, and can only take so much satirical un-funny comedy. It was great to see the lovely Kate Beckinsale, and Jeong was his usual blast as well, and it was also great to see the late Ray Liotta doing his thing in what is probably the last film he made, but it's too bad this film was more of a flop than it was fun. The story was mostly long dragged out and incoherent nonsense that lacked any good comedy or sharp satire. It's a generous 4/10 for all the stars that I'm sure mostly donated their time for this mess.

This film is hard to watch for all the wrong reasons. The slow pace and general unfunniness represent a missed opportunity of such an amazing cast. If Charlie D. Is identifying as Charlie C. These day, he just needs to stop it. If Day put this project on hold to deliver this past season of Philadelphia, he has really just lost his way, and needs to surround himself with some new/fresh talent. Day's recent work (the past 5 years) is formulaic, as usual, but without the charm of his characters as their younger selves. The world seems to be maturing around Day, who struggles increasingly to make audiences laugh.