BOTTLE ROCKET * out of **** Tedious liaisons BOTTLE ROCKET has me wondering how it ever got made into a full-length film. It is about twentysomething underachievers, rather familiar subjects in movies of late, and there are no marquee names in the cast to guarantee a bankroll. The only novelty here seems to be the twist that our young underachievers aspire for a life of crime. This may be sufficient material for a short film, which was how BOTTLE ROCKET began when it attracted studio attention at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival. Beyond this twist, however, the film goes bankrupt on creativity, and a slight premise strung out into a full-length movie populated by annoying and unsympathetic folk does not a pleasurable viewing experience make. Politely put, BOTTLE ROCKET underachieves badly. BOTTLE ROCKET attempts to be a whimsical comedy, but with a script that is underdeveloped and obviously lacking in both humour and smarts, it never takes off the ground. Without the laughs to sufficiently remove the story from reality, the obvious underachievement and idiocy along with the glaring lack of believable motivation will, if lucky enough, leave one unaffected. Worse, here it grates on the nerves. Let's examine the choice of title. To convince us of its appropriateness, we witness a shopping spree at a roadside firecracker stand followed by a few being lit outside the open window of a car as it drives along. The reference to the title makes it too obvious that this is nothing more than standard filler fare played to the formulaic unknown but catchy background tune. What this and other scenes convinces of is that more time and effort was spent in searching for background music than filling out a story that badly needed consideration. Armed with a common brainlessness, there is not much to like about the characters here. Especially unendurable is Dignan (Owen Wilson), the designated off-kilter character who, according to the formula, is supposed to charm because he is a touch odd. Instead, Dignan wears away on the nerves, and quickly. Wilson's performance doesn't help matters much; it lacks the necessary spontaneity, deliberation is apparent where there should be none, and with the betrayal of hints of brain matter, Dignan's brainless activities turn both inexplicable and insufferable. Dignan dreams of joining the town's crime gang, headed by Mr. Henry (James Caan) but feels he must first prove his mettle. To this end, we see Dignan fill out notebooks to brimming with objectives at various stages of his career. Floor plans are consulted, thefts are practiced and pondered over afterwards, and when they commit their first true crime they wear bandage strips over their noses as a disguise - how droll. Dignan conscripts Anthony (Luke Wilson) who has just been released from his voluntary stay at a mental facility for exhaustion. In absence of an explanation for his exhaustion, Anthony's friendship with Dignan becomes the unintended answer. You wonder how Anthony could stand Dignan, let alone follow his witless schemes, but he resigns to it as if it was fated. Luke Wilson feigns a glassy-eyed Bambi look which fails to endear. Luke Wilson's Prozac approach to his performance may be appropriate to the character and he performs acceptably but BOTTLE ROCKET needed much more than that to pull this off. Completing this sorry trinity is gutless Bob (Robert Musgrave) who gets to tag along because he is the only one with cash and a car. Watching humourless characters with life and sense sucked out of them actively approach self-destruction is no fun to watch. Misery may love company but I do wish I missed this boat. The plot is really THE WIZARD OF OZ devoid of humour, heart and mind. Dignan needs a brain (or at least evidence of it), Anthony a heart and Bob courage, and the three manage to achieve some level of dubious achievement: Dignan coordinates a more sophisticated robbery while in cahoots with the local gangster but he is way over his head, not surprisingly; less convincingly, Anthony falls in love with a Paraguayan motel maid whose feeble knowledge of English provides the too-familiar translation problems and equally feeble laughs; Bob's conflict with his brother (played by another Wilson brother), who quite rightly sees Bob as a loser, provides more filler for us to observe "character development." Can something fizzle if it never lights up? BOTTLE ROCKET's greatest success is that it was made at all. BOTTLE ROCKET Directed by Wes Anderson. Written by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson. U.S.A. 1996 Review completed February 26, 1997. |