Bowfinger

Starring: Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Heather Graham, Christine Baranski, Robert Downey Jr., Jamie Kennedy, Adam Alexi-Malle, Terence Stamp, John Cho
Directed by: Frank Oz
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy
1999

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A failed movie producer (Steve Martin) sees one last attempt at salvation in Hollywood- he'll film a science fiction film featuring the biggest actor (Eddie Murphy) in the world. When the actor refuses to be in the film, he decides to film it without the actor knowing.

Review:

Tim: It took me almost 17 years to finally get around to seeing Bowfinger. Honestly, I just always thought the movie looked so stupid. The cover of the DVD did nothing to win me over. It actively turned me off to the possibility of watching the film. When I finally decided to bite the bullet, I found Bowfinger to not be nearly as bad as it looked. I can't claim this is a good movie, but it gets much closer than I anticipated.

I kind of like the idea of a small film studio making a movie without the main character being aware he's in the film. There's tons of comedic possibilities behind this idea. The basic premise is a sound one, save for a few big flaws. First off, there's no humanely way anyone could pull something like this off. The movie does a great job of showing how this could have been done (good work on the script, Steve Martin), but even with all their convincing possibilities, the fact remains that the whole movie is absurd. That's not enough to completely sink the film, but it's a nagging thought in every scene- all of this is ridiculous. It helps that this is a comedy, but I wish the premise of the movie was built on slightly sturdier ground. Also, in reality, a studio that tried to pull this off would be sued beyond belief. I know the film addresses this, but it felt like a very easy out. In reality, no one would even attempt this because the movie would never be shown. Finally, and this is perhaps the biggest problem I had with the film- if you tried to make a movie like this without the main character knowing, you would create an absolutely horrendous movie. There's no way around this. People don't talk in real life like they do in the movies. The final product would have been a total waste of time. Even if they could have pulled it off, critics would have lambasted the film. I could never fully see past this issue.

The cast is far stronger than I expected. Steve Martin is a bit unlikable in the lead role, but he plays him with enough desperation for us to be able to root for him. He's often a despicable human being, lying to his closest friends, encouraging them to commit crimes, psychologically wrecking the actor, stealing from his employees, etc. And yet, despite his awful behavior, we never fully hate his character. It's impressive that Martin could have pulled this off. Eddie Murphy is good, playing two very different characters. As the big actor, he's playing a comedic version of himself. He's always good in those fast-talking roles. He's a bit of a rube, but that's fine. He gets to show a bit of his range as the ultra nerdy Jiff. His performance was fine. I didn't love that character, but if Murphy wanted to show what he can do as an actor, I'm okay with that. Heather Graham was great as an actress willing to do anything to help her career (which was clearly a thinly-veiled attack on many wannabe actresses). I thought she did a good job. Jamie Kennedy was fine in a smaller supporting role. I also loved seeing Robert Downey Jr., although his role exists on the margins of the story and he has nothing important to do. His presence was still welcome. The cast as a whole is strong.

I did like the way this movie slyly commented on Hollywood as a whole. There was the obvious references to Scientology, which I found very funny. There's the lying, cheating, manipulating that obviously occurs every day throughout the studio system. There's the mentality of wanting to achieving something great and not caring who gets run over in the process. It's very interesting to watch this movie through Steve Martin's brain, drawing connections to the attacks he lobs on the whole Hollywood system.

At the end of the day, Bowfinger is a comedy meant to entertain. It's an okay movie. It has some strengths and on occasion was pretty funny. There's other dry stretches where the movie felt thin and didn't hold my attention much. I certainly give Steve Martin and director Frank Oz credit for trying something different. You can't call this movie a success, but it was almost a success- they got close to pulling it off. There's no second place trophies in Hollywood, so I'd consider this an average movie, but I expected much worse.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



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