Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Friday, 18 Jan 2008 15:47
John C Reilly and Jenna Fischer co-star in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.
Directed by Jake Kasdan, out January 18th in cinemas, starring John C Reilly, Jenna Fischer, Tim Meadows, Kristen Wiig, running time 96 minutes.
In a nutshell…
The Frat Pack walk the line.
What's it all about?
Before being honoured with a lifetime achievement award, musical legend Dewey Cox (John C Reilly) reflects on 50 years in music. After a terrible childhood accident leaves his brother forever changed (literally), Dewey vows to make it in the world of music, on the way marrying three times, fathering 22 children and 14 stepkids, spiralling deeper into increasingly harder addictions and experimenting with a range of musical genres, only to be saved by the love of a good woman, his long-time backing singer Darlene (Fischer).
Any similarities to Walk the Line and Ray may or may not be intentional.
Who's in it?
John C Reilly shows the impressive musical talents he showed in Chicago can be married to his madcap ability for improvisation in the lead role, fashioning Dewey into a hilarious, frequently ridiculous but always sympathetic character, even as a crinkly old man.
The Office's Jenna Fischer is as loveable as ever as the put-upon Darlene, brilliantly mining the awkward sexuality she exploited in Blades of Glory while Saturday Night alumni Tim Meadows and Chris Parnell are on fine form as members of Dewey's backing band.
And Raymond J Barry deserves special mention for his recurring scenes as Pa Cox, managing to provide umpteen spins on the repeated line: "The wrong kid died."
As an example…
Dewey: "You can take the children but you leave me my monkey!"
Edith: "It's illegal to be married to two people at the same time Dewey!"
Dewey: "… Even if you're famous?"
Dewey: "I'm locked in a custody battle at the moment - custody is being forced upon me, which I don't think is right."
Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars?
Comedies never get a fair look from the Academy and when a film so joyously attacks Oscar-bait such as Walk the Line, there's an ever smaller chance of awards.
But with a Golden Globe nomination for the excellent title song, it'd be unjust for the soundtrack to miss out completely while sections of the movies - namely the Beatles cameo - could feature in categories more common at the MTV awards.
What the others say
"John C Reilly just about holds together a funny but patchy comedy that puts a ten-megaton bomb under the cliched rock biopic – and never detonates it." - Damon Wise, Empire
"This gleeful skewering of American popular music works because of the talents of director Jake Kasdan and a cast led by John C Reilly." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
So is it any good?
It's tonally uneven and for much of the time, the songs are overly long, yet for fans of the Frat Pack there is certainly lots to love here. Reilly is always watchable - though the stupidity of his character feels worryingly similar to many of those played by Will Ferrell - and there are easily enough laugh-out-moments to merit repeat viewings. The overly erotic dancing in the African-American nightclub, Dewey's blase phone conversation with his first wife Edith (Kristen Wiig) while naked bodies stroll around his hotel room, the cameos from Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Jason Schwartzmann and Justin Long as the hilariously-accented Beatles - many of these could rise to the same quotable status as the highlights of Dodgeball or Anchorman.
Yet there's certainly something missing. It never reaches the same hysteria-inducing heights as its Frat Pack equivalents and 96 minutes is certainly too short a time to convey a 50-year career. Equally, Reilly's such an accomplished actor that we even begin to feel sympathy for a character as ludicrous as Dewey, meaning that despite the savagery with which Apatow and Kasdan attack music biopics, they can't help but fall into the same trap of sentimentality as the best and worst examples of the genre. And when that genre's fundamentally ridiculous itself - childhood tragedy plus talent minus substance abuse divided by love of a good woman equals musical legend - a parody can only struggle.
The songs are superb though, especially in the traversing of the musical landscape of the 20th century, and it's an enjoyably silly trip throughout, if not the Beautiful Ride of which Dewey sings.
7/10
Lewis Bazley
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