Cinerant

Produce This

I’ve got to give it to Susan Stroman—she obviously loves the musical form and is willing to stay true to what a “real” musical is, even if that means a crude, thinly tuned, broadly written show.  Her commitment to the art form keeps pushing the filmed version of the musical The Producers forward, almost making it work as a movie.  Unfortunately, what keeps it from being something other than an amusing truffle is the fact that its humor is based on a movie from the late 1960’s.  Even when Mel Brooks wrote his famous screenplay, the humor was dated and a little out of touch.  Updating that for the Broadway stage, then translating it into this movie makes much of the humor feel a little recycled.  

The idea of horny little old women, campy gay men, and Swedish sexpots just don’t have the zing they once did.  We’ve seen them a million times since.  One by one the jokes can amuse, but together, they simply feel stale.  

However, that’s not to say that the movie isn’t funny.  There is much humor to go around.  Matthew Broderick deserves most of the recognition for making his neebish accountant, Leo Bloom to be the most amusing part of the film.  Broderick mines every bit of laughter in the most organic way.  In addition to Broderick’s performance, kudos also should go to Will Ferrell (for actually acting) and giving a highly amusing turn as Franz Liebkind, as well as Uma Thurman, singing and dancing around, coming off as the convincing Swedish sexpot secretary/receptionist Ulla.  Yet the most memorable supporting performance comes from Roger Bart as Carmen Ghia.  His campy, delicious turn threatens to steal every scene he’s in.  

The movie goes on along about one musical number too long and could be tightened to make things stronger.  Part of the problem comes from the fact that the last two numbers rely upon Nathan Lane.  Unfortunately, he’s not up to the challenge.  Or more accurately, he’s all over the challenge and anything else somebody wants to throw at him.  What results is a performance that’s so theatrical it feels so absurd and untouchable, incredible from the very first moment he appears onscreen.  As a result, we never really get to feel anything for Max Bialystock, and we don’t care too much about the tragedy that befalls him.  Still, the film works on an inherently basic crowd-pleasing level.  

Though it’s no Moulin Rouge, it’s worlds better than Rent.  

posted by cinegod @ 5:56 PM