Despite
a decidedly spotty, often shabby, occasionally even sordid record, English
cinema displays a number of bright moments and impressive achievements. In
addition to some quite remarkable directors and a legion of accomplished
actors, in certain periods of their history British motion pictures virtually
bubble with energy.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย While showcasing such talents as
Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers, the Ealing comedies
of the late 1940s and early 1950s — e.g., Kind
Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender
Hill Mob (my personal favorite), and The
Ladykillers — represent some of the best in
British film=s capacity for wit, vivacity, and charm.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย In their remake of the Ealing dark comedy, The
Ladykillers, Ethan and Joel Coen
update the original and, perhaps hoping to repeat the commercial success of Brother, Where Art Thou?, transplant it
from England to Mississippi. Aside from allowing them to milk some small humor
from a collection of easy regional stereotypes — from the sleepy sheriff to
the black preacher — the change of setting enables them to exaggerate their
characters, especially the protagonist, in a distinctly Southern manner.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Although it roughly duplicates the
situation and plot of the original, the new version demonstrates the folly of
certain remakes, which attempt to improve upon (and of course, profit from)
works inextricably connected to the peculiarities of their own time and place.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย In the new movie, Tom Hanks plays
Professor GoldthwaitHigginson
Dorr, the leader of a gang of bumblers
who plan a big caper, in this case tunneling from the house of Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall) to the strongroom
of a riverboat casino. Although the gang, who pretend to be practicing music of
the later Renaissance in Munson=s cellar,
includes the usual experts — a tunnel man, an demolition expert, an inside
agent, a strongarm — following the prevailing
European tradition of the big caper flick, the movie plays the whole endeavor
for laughs.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Instead of careful planning, high
tension, and clockwork precision, therefore, the plot depends upon the
escalating ineptitude of the Aexperts@ and their
inability to conceal their efforts from their landlady.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Perhaps the most successful ploy on
the part of the filmmakers, oddly, involves the prose style of the characters,
each of whom speaks his own personal language. Beyond the grunts of the muscle
man and the monosyllables of the tunnel expert, Marlon Wayans,
the excitable inside worker, babbles a version of ghetto blather liberally
sprinkled with obscenities that shocks the pious landlady. The
pedantic explosives expert, Garth Pancake (J.K. Simmons), who blows one of his
fingers off, delivers pedantic lectures on a number of subjects, but mostly
concentrates on the special mysteries of his personal affliction, irritable
bowel syndrome.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The professor, however, dominates
both the picture and the dialogue — it=s a very talky
movie, especially for an American production — spinning out his confidence
game, improvising appropriately baroque prevarications for questioners and
doubters in long polysyllabic disquisitions, full of elegant variation,
literary allusions, ornate phrasing, with even the semicolons audible.
Combining in one character the oleaginous and the syrupy, like some walking,
talking mixture of axle grease and molasses, laughing in horrible asthmatic
gasps, Hanks virtually smothers the role and the picture. Contrasted with the
dry precision of Alec Guinness, his performance rapidly grows tiresome and even
exasperating.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Following the example of the
original, The Ladykillers allows its people to succeed in their big caper, despite the gang=s general
clumsiness and idiocy, and now and then extracts some real laughs from its
material.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The series of violent confrontations
and allegedly comic mishaps that rather hastily finish off the plot and satisfy
the convention stipulating that people in a movie really shouldn=t profit from
a crime, attain a level of graphic authenticity and, even occasionally, of
shock beyond the sort of thing that English film comedies of the 1950s would
attempt. Much of the action depends upon the filmmakers=
characteristic tendency to play too often for a laugh and to employ a
relentlessly adolescent approach to the situation and the people.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The dominating failure in The Ladykillers,
which may derive either from the Coen brothers or
even from Tom Hanks himself, involves the general excess of just about
everything and everyone. Virtually all the actors overplay their parts
outrageously, mugging to underline the jokes, consciously pausing to deliver
obvious gag lines so that nobody misses the point, painting everything in bold
primary colors with the broadest possible brush, decidedly not the approach
that made those wonderful comedies from the Ealing
Studios so delightful and so memorable, and, sadly, so attractive to the Coens.
The
Ladykillers, starring Tom Hanks, Irma P.
Hall, Marlon Wayans, J.K. Simmons, Tzi Ma, Ryan Hurst, Diane Delano, George Wallace, John
McConnell, Jason Weaver, Steven Root; The
Ladykillers, written by William Rose; written for
the screen and directed by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen. CinemarkTinseltown; Pittsford Plaza Cinema;
Regal Eastview; Regal Culver Ridge; Regal Henrietta.
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2004.
