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ALONG
CAME POLLY
4/10
USA
2004 : John HAMBURG : 90 mins
He is so
good that only the best material is going to help build our sense of him.
Meanwhile, search him out, as you might Kevin Spacey. There is the same
very dangerous talent at work – astounding, yet so pronounced it could
help make its own prison.
David Thomson on Philip Seymour Hoffman
The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (3rd edition,
2003)
People taking
Thomson’s advice and “seeking out” Hoffman – by watching films they otherwise
wouldn’t bother with – will enjoy only intermittent rewards with Along
Came Polly, in which PSH contributes an effortlessly entertaining
sidelines turn. But his limited appearances aren’t enough to save this
woefully by-the-numbers romantic comedy which shamelessly replays the
ancient formula of ‘anal-retentive man is loosened up by free-spirited
woman.’
 Given
the right casting (i.e. Hoffman as the stuffed-shirt) and direction –
this might just be worthwhile. But leads Ben Stiller (as Reuben,
a risk-averse risk-assessor) and Jennifer Aniston (a hippyish, salsa-dancing
drifter) aren’t sufficiently skilled or original to give the tired material
any kind of fresh twist. And with Hamburg always taking the most Reubenish,
risk-averse approach behind the camera, it’s left to the supporting players
to keep things even borderline watchable.
The main plus
is, unsurprisingly enough, a portlier-than-ever Hoffman as Reuben’s best
friend - a mildly-obnoxious former teen movie-star fallen on hard times
(and who shares his name, bizarrely, with Scots golf-champ Sandy Lyle).
Then there’s Alec Baldwin as Reuben’s bracingly crude and no-nonsense
boss and Bryan Brown as an extreme-sports-fanatic businessman seeking
life-insurance. All three are underused – which certainly can’t be said
for Hank Azaria, distractingly buffed-up and woefully unfunny in his cameos
as a randy “French” scuba-diving nudist.
As with Hamburg’s
scripts for Stiller’s Zoolander
and Meet the Parents,
the jokes are very hit-and-miss – and this time they’re decidedly more
miss than hit. When in doubt, Hamburg tries to milk cheap laughs by filling
the soundtrack with the noisy intestinal consequences of Reuben’s Irritable
Bowel Syndrome, or else by having Polly’s elderly, near-blind pet ferret
bump into things. By the end, even though special effects are used for
the ‘bumps’, you do end up feeling rather sorry that the appealing little
critter must endure such indignities. Philip Seymour Hoffman and his many
admirers, patiently awaiting “the best material”, may well sympathise.
29th February,
2004
(seen 27th February : Showcase, Stockton-on-Tees)
by Neil
Young
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