The Great Buck Howard (2009)
The Great Buck Howard (2009): 5.9/10
The Great Buck Howard is a film that has a ton of flaws. It needs to thank its lucky stars that it got John Malkovich to play the title role because otherwise I would not have liked this film. The film yearns and pays tribute to the days when audiences were much easier to entertain and did not need the showiness and the spectacular effects that we need now. It mourns the loss of the variety act which barely exists. It takes a look at how hype and fame control how a former star is looked at. Buck Howard's actions and attitude seem pathetic to us because he is not nearly as big as he used to be but somehow when everyone loves him again it is not seen as pathetic. These elements are interesting. The rest of the film? Meh.
The film completely flounders when it focuses on Troy, the films main character. As we seen in the truly dreadful, forced and faux quirky and contrived opening credits, Troy decides to quite law school and become a writer. He realizes though that he needs money in the present to pay his bills and he gets a job as the assistant of Buck Howard, a mentalist/entertainer whose numerous appearences on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson made him famous in the 70's (he is loosely based on the Amazing Kreskin). All of this happens in the opening credits. If the rest of the film was like this I would have hated it.
The films problems all mainly involve Troy. Colin Hanks does a fine job in the role; the problems have nothing to do with him. The problem is that the film relies much too heavily on Troy's narration which takes over the film on multiple occasions. It is pretty obvious that Troy is supposed to represent the screenwriter of the film, Sean McGinly and I feel like because of this the film is focused entirely too much on his character who is pretty uninteresting outside of two scenes with Tom Hanks who ironically plays his father. He is supposed to be the protagonist (not Buck) but he is a pretty boring protagonist.
The film is also extremely slight which I always take issue with. Slight films can be really great but usually I just do not care about a film that is slight.
Buck Howard himself is a bit of a cliche. He acts like a big star, is delusional about how much of his fame has stayed with him, he has nobody but Troy, how does he do that trick?, and other such character tropes.
It sounds like I hated this but I didn't. I hated the first 10 minutes of it and many parts of it upset me greatly but overall John Malkovich's performance makes this movie not only watchable but geniunely enjoyable. He is fantastic here. It is so rare when he gets to really shine like this in a comedic role and in a starring comedic role at that. I know that he will not be remembered come Oscar time at all but he really should be for Supporting. The screenplay gives him these quirks which force him into individuality but he brings that individuality himself outside of the quirky handshake or "I love this town!" or "Let's do it". He brings so much to the role and he alone makes the movie.
In other thoughts I did not mind the inclusion of Emily Blunt's character Valerie into the film mainly because she is refreshing in the role. It is amusing to see her in yet another film about being an assistant to someone who has diva qualities to them. It is a pretty thankless role but she brings something to it that actually makes it worth watching and it further shows her capabilites as an actress to bring more to a character than what is written on the page for her.
I must say that easily the best scene in the film outside of any material with John Malkovich and maybe even including that are the end credits which feature Clap Your Hands Say Yeah performing one of lead singer Alec Ounsworth's solo songs that was used for the film. They appear earlier in the film as well.
Overall The Great Buck Howard succeeds in John Malkovich's fantastic performance which brings life, humor and humanity to the film but it fails in most of its other endeavors due to an in uninteresting main character, overly present narration and general slightness.
