At the Movies - The Great Buck Howard

I went to see a preview of a "yet-to-be/may-never-be" released movie on Sunday. It was The Great Buck Howard, with John Malkovich and Colin Hanks, among many, many others. It was a fairly decent film, that might have been an even better film for me if it didn't have such a good pedigree. I was just constantly thrown out of the moment of the movie by who the actors were.

For instance, Colin Hanks. I've seen him in other stuff, and I'm not really distracted by the fact that he's the son of Tom. He's good now, with a lot of potential for very good later. But in this movie, his father was played by his father. Very well played, by the way. But unfortunately, once I saw them in the same frame together, I spent the rest of the movie analyzing Colin's face: oh, he gets that expression from his dad; when he turns that way, he doesn't look at all like his dad; when he smiles he looks like a cross between his dad and Zach Braff. Really not conducive to watching a story about a character who isn't Tom Hanks son.

Then there were people who showed up in bit parts who were actually too big for the role they were playing. I'm guessing it was because Tom Hanks was a producer and they either were doing him a favor, or hoping he would owe them a little quid-pro-quo somewhere down the line. So, Donnie Most shows up playing a producer for the Tonight Show. Not in a "cameo-Donnie-Most-playing-a-producer"/ironic kind of way. Just him playing that little throw-away part. I finally decided that actors have a specific gravity. And any time that gravity doesn't quite match up to the part they're playing, it throws things off. Like if he'd been playing that part in a bigger movie, it would have made sense. Or if he'd been playing a bigger part in this small movie, it would have made sense. But as it was, all I could think was "Hey, that's Donnie Most." And the same thing happened with Dave Atell. And Napoleon Dynamite's grandmother.

And lastly was John Malkovich. Who was, as per his usual, balls to the wall, totally committed, no vanity, no motivation unexplored. An artist and a pro. Working his ass off. And his best was just at an entirely different level than anyone else in the room. With the exception of Tom Hanks - and that scene was freaking poetry. Not that the other actors were bad. It was just like watching Derek Jeter play at the Little League World Series. They're good. He's better. And it shows.

In the end, it was a charming little movie that suffered from an over-abundance of gifts. If you see it for rental, it's got moments where it gets everything right. And for those, I'd say it's worth an hour and a half of your time.