Death To Smoochy

Directed by Danny DeVito

Starring: Edward Norton, Robin Williams, Jon Stewart, Catherine Keener and Danny DeVito

"What ever happened to predictibility? The milkman, the paperboy, evening TV?" And what happened to good movie comedies. As the theme song of Full House points out, things are much different today than they used to be. And as I point out, the comedy genre in film as really gone down the shitter. Today's comedies are all about gross out, getting your penis caught in a zipper, semen in your hair humor. And honestly that just isn't funny to me. But along comes Death To Smoochy, and now I feel like the genre still has a chance. This movie is not the savior of the genre, but at least it's a step in the right direction.

In DeVito's, Death To Smoochy, he takes us through the rise of the career of young entertainer, Sheldon Mopes (Edward Norton) as he deals with the problems of stardom and corruption within the industry of child entertainment. Now DeVito does not do anything amazing with the camera in this film, in fact he really does some stupid things, such as turning it clockwise and having weird angles for no reason at all. There are some nice contrasts between the worlds inhabited by Norton and the worlds inhabited by pretty much everyone else, but nothing spectacular. But forget about that. The movie is really made by Adam Resnick, the writer of the film. Resnick has a nicely developed style, which he must have learned from his days writing for the brilliant TV show, Get A Life, because he moves quite well from the sweet, innocent Norton to the dark, demented character Rainbow Randolph Smiley (Robin Williams). Without Resnick, the film would have been terrible.

The acting in the film is rather good. Norton continues to show an amazing range, being able to go from movies like American History X and Fight Club to movies like this one. His performance is one of the best by a comedic actor in a long while, outside of The Royal Tenenbaums. He is created in the beginning of the film as a holier than all holy type of guy, but as the film progresses he starts to shows a much darker side, which unfortunately is not developed quite enough. Catherine Keener plays a character much like the one she played in Being John Malkovich. In the end she has a much sunnier disposition, but at the beginning, the characters are rather similar. None of the other performances in the movie stand out. Its nice to see Robin Williams again in a movie that isn't terrible and stupid and its nice to see Jon Stewart in a movie. But Williams is a little too nuts and Jon Stewart just isn't used nearly enough.

What this all boils down to is a film that could have been taken to the next level of brilliant, but it didn't have a refined enough script or competent directing. The film lacks a real message and too many times mocks the spirit of good will that Norton embodies. But when you compare it to many comedies of the day, it shines. Death to Smoochy is a fun movie that makes you smile and makes you laugh without having to resort to Farrelly brother's type humor. And I think somewhere up in sitcom heaven, Uncle Jessie is smiling and combing his hair thinking that the good times are coming back.

Rating: 68%