WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM? (2000)
Grade: B-
Director: Mike Nichols
Screenplay: Garry Shandling, Michael Lesson, Ed Solomon, Peter Tolan
Starring: Garry Shandling, Annette Benning, John Goodman, Greg Kinnear, Ben Kingsley, Judy Greer, Linda Fiorentino, Richard Jenkins, Ann Cusack, Camryn Manheim, Janeane Garofalo, Cricky Long, Danny Zorn
There's something more than a little otherworldly about Garry Shandling. The man has the alien-like ability to appear uncomfortable in nearly every scene he seems to find himself stuck in. He cringes and stumbles about as if he were engaged in a laborious battle with an unwanted bowel movement, he squints and blinks straining his already worn facial muscles, and he swings his head to and fro, quickly, as if looking for some hole to hide in. Like Woody Allen or Albert Brooks, Shandling isn't really an actor, he's a comedian who's (seemingly) capable of playing only one part, that of the self loathing wiseacre that was put to maximum comic effect in THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW in which he played the title character, a grumpy egocentric talk show host who cringed a lot and just seemed awfully uncomfortable in his own skin.
How much you like WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM? will largely depend on how much you like Shandling. I've been a fan since SANDERS, and though he really doesn't do much here, just watching him awkwardly shamble through each scene brought a giddy grin to my face. (Though considering that at this point I seem to be the only person I know who's enjoyed this film it's entirely possible that I'm just easily amused). The man has an off hand way of speaking, as if he's not sure of what he's saying and…well, either you dig it or you don't. The film (which was co-written by Shandling) has a lot of the sorta clever word play that every Shandling endeavor comes equipped with. Lines that are marginally funny register as full blown guffaws simply because of the strained delivery and utter seriousness in which Shandling spouts them. Sample; Co-worker: "You got some balls on you", Shandling: "That's right…two of them. Right below my penis".
Though casting Shandling in the lead role of a major motion picture may not have been the brightest business move, since he's certainly no matinee idol or even the kind of comedian who's managed to endear himself to the American mainstream (like Jim Carrey did with IN LIVING COLOR, or Mike Myers with SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE…LARRY SANDERS received mucho critical accolades but was never a BIG hit with the public), it nonetheless ensures the film's future reputation as a likeable cult oddity. It's the kind of movie that some brave video adventurer will undoubtedly cross paths with five, ten, maybe twenty years from now while cruising the COMEDY section on a lonely Saturday (most likely after discovering that all the promising new releases have found temporary homes), the adventurer will scrutinize the cover which will prominently feature the names of its stellar ensemble, and he/she will usually opt to pick something else, perhaps an old reliable standby like THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY, but they'll return to it out of curiosity, and maybe they'll work up the courage to give it a try (the video adventurer is hesitant for he/she has been previously burned many a time by curiosities with promising casts) on one of those bargain rent one get one free nights. And if they remember to watch it, they'll probably wind up having a better time than they expected.
Shandling plays a member of an advanced Planet where only men (all penisless) co-exist. They're lead by Graydon (a solemn Ben Kingsly), a megalomaniacal sort with plans to take over Earth by importing their most charming citizen to mate with an Earth women. Our cringing hero is the chosen one (…and these aliens are supposed to be advanced). His penis is promptly attached with a minor glitch that provides the film's running gag; the member buzzes whenever Shandling is aroused (oddly enough my penis sings show tunes but that's for another web site). This is a gag that sometimes inspires amusing exchanges ("That's my penis…it hums" Shandling explains to a stunned Linda Fiorentino. "I guess it doesn't know the words," Fiorentino counters), and more often it's ignored which doesn't seem entirely realistic but than again neither does the idea of Warren Beatty as a running candidate for President of the United States or that whole O.J thing. Nope, in the world we live in a humming penis doesn't sound terribly exaggerated.
Once on earth Shandling's character finds himself a name (Harold Anderson), a place of employment (as a banker), and a friend in his sleazy co-worker, Brian (played with smarmy relish by Greg Kinnear who can't seem to stop rubbing his goatee) who takes him to an AA meeting in order to pick up "desperate chicks". And Anderson meets one, Susan, played by Annette Benning (AMERICAN BEAUTY for which she was nominated for an Academy Award). Benning actually seems to have invested some emotion into her role as an emotional basket case, so much so that she appears to be acting in a far grimmer movie like, say LEAVING LAS VEGAS 2. This works better for the film than it should; Benning is so likeable as a former alcoholic wreck attempting to get her life back on track that she alone brings all the emotional weight the film lacks in its first two acts, though stupidly tries to make up for in its third.
Like MY GIANT, WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM? makes the common middle age comedy mistake of turning dramatic (you see aliens have feelings too). The drama doesn't work but again it could have been much worse. Consider this; Shandling the actor is not at all adept at conveying any recognizable human emotion so thankfully here, he's made to play an alien who's unable to convey any recognizable human emotion. Yes, it's as good a casting coup as having the wooden Schwarzenegger play a robot in THE TERMINATOR or the moronic Adam Sandler play retarded in THE WARTERBOY. Finally Shandling has found a big screen vehicle suited for his peculiar comedic stylings! He's really playing himself, playing an alien.
WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM is with out a doubt a mess, vacillating from one disparate tone to the next, but it's fun in its B-movie scattershotness, at times it's like a combination of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATRE-style cheerful absurdity and Woody Allen-style cleverness. It even works in some not-so subtle satire of male and female relations suggesting that the opposite sex might as well be from another planet.
The film was directed by Mike Nichols who's made a barrage of movies since the sixties, some classics like THE GRADUATE, CARNAL KNOWLEDGE and WORKING GIRL, others forgettable messes like THE FORTUNE and some pleasant diversions that fall somewhere in between, like CATCH 22. WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM is one of those, it's the kind of film that has a bad moment sandwiched in between two good ones, but by the end, for me, the good won out. I know because I left grinning like a complete idiot.