A film that’s more potential than actuality
Image Courtesy of IMPawards.com
Director: Andrew Fleming
Notable Cast: Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Joseph Julian Soria, Skylar Astin, Phoebe Strole, Melonie Diaz, David Arquette, Elisabeth Shue, Amy Poehler
Sometimes a film can be uproariously funny without having a good script, as strange as it sounds, and Hamlet 2 is proof of it. How so? The sheer willpower of Britain’s next great comedic actor Steve Coogan, that’s how.
Coogan stars as a high school drama teacher in Tucson, AZ. He and his wife (Catherine Keener) are trying and failing to have a child and the cost of treatments has forced them to bring in a boarder (David Arquette). He rollerblades to work, though not very well, and his life has been a series of failures culminating with the life of a small time drama teacher in a small town in the American Southwest.
Dana was a failed actor who starred in several commercials. Now he puts on stage productions of famous films with his students, he faces a crisis that requires him to go above and beyond his limited abilities. When his small drama class increases in size with students who had their other electives cancelled, he’s forced to try and become a better teacher to try and reach his students. Except he’s seen too many films like Dangerous Minds and thinks that he can reach his students in the same way as he’s seen actors do in formulaic films.
He makes it all the worse when he goes at it in markedly offensive ways to his mostly Hispanic students. On top of a brand new class of students, he’s informed that the failure of his department has led directly to the drama program being cancelled. Left with a new class of students, and one last chance at a successful play, he comes up with a play of potentially disastrous proportions: “Hamlet 2,” a sequel to history’s great tragedy. Why?
“Because everyone deserves a happy ending.”
Don’t worry though; he has a “device” so that Hamlet and his friend Jesus Christ can go through time and save all his friends from death, meanwhile confronting his father (which has several levels in the film). Throw in an appearance by Elizabeth Shue as Elizabeth Shue and you have one of the more subversive comedies of the year.
Perhaps a backhanded slap at Hollywood’s attempt at forcing a happy ending onto nearly all of its films, “Hamlet 2″ the play is bizarre and offensive to everyone. When the play is shut down, it takes all of Coogan’s courage and the help of an ACLU lawyer (Amy Poehler) to pull it off with perhaps the year’s funniest musical finale with the song “Rock Me Sexy Jesus.”
This is the sort of film that really shouldn’t work, and it starts with the script. There’s nothing in the script that makes the characters likable; poorly developed, the film meanders until its big finale (which saves the film, for the most part). Now normally caring about any of the main characters would be difficult, but Steve Coogan is in the sort manic comedy zone that few can maintain without some sort of obvious narcotic enhancement. Coogan takes the film on his back and carries it, making laughs where a lackluster joke is inserted by sheer force of will through his physical manners and his ability to play everything straight. He’s a fool, of course, but he doesn’t know it. It makes for some comedic magic, as Coogan takes the chance to be the main character in a mainstream comedy and he goes for the fences every time. Coogan has this energy and vibrancy on screen that commands attention.
The problem is that the film relies a lot on stock characters and shock value for laughs as opposed to solid, quality writing. There’s a much funnier film waiting to be had about small-town values versus offensive material that seems to be buried inside, but Hamlet 2 goes for quick gags as opposed to setting up for the more involved joke. When Coogan is on the screen, which is the bulk of the film, there are plenty of laughs he manages to bring out. The problem is that when he isn’t, the film suffers because the material isn’t strong enough to hold up. The only other bright spot Poehler, whose energy helps, carries parts of the film in what’s really a glorified cameo spot with the sort of firebrand she’s known for.
Hamlet 2 is a solid comedy but doesn’t hit the home run it should. Steve Coogan is a delight to watch, but a weak script keeps this from being one of the better comedies of the year. It winds up as solid entertainment, but nothing special in a year with several special comedies.
