We all
make little promises that we think mean nothing. But here's
a word of advice for John Plummer (Jason Lee): never make
one on videotape. If he'd had that advice twelve years ago,
he would not have promised his heart-broken niece that he
would pay for her college education.
That
taped promise rolls the plot of Stealing Harvard into
motion. But like much of the whole movie, it's a moment that
you might buy as you're watching it that falls apart the more
you think about it. If every character in the scene is actually
on the tape, who's got the camera?
The movie
ends up being a bunch of half-baked ideas like that, existing
only to move the thin plot along, yet thrown together in a
way that makes it hold together far better than it should.
Give the credit to that to director Bruce McCulloch and some
very good character actors. McCulloch directs with the rhythms
of his Kids In The Hall days, where every moment lingers
just a hair past the point of being funny, and then becomes
funny again (to some of us, anyway). Every situation has something
just a little bit off, with premises barely this side of believable.
You'd
think that would be perfect for an actor (?) like Tom Green,
who gets top billing in this movie as John's friend Duff.
For the first half of the film, though, McCulloch seems to
have
difficulty figuring out how to really capture whatever
it is that makes people want to watch his fellow weird Canadian.
Green himself doesn't offer much of it, either. When it finally
gels, it may be too late for some audiences.
As the
beleaguered John, Lee continues to prove himself an actor
better than his dialogue. Having cut his teeth on Kevin Smith's
idiosyncratic rhythms, Lee does what he can with Peter Tolan's
words, but he still seems a little mannered in his delivery.
He's used to speaking dialogue where everything has some meaning,
and in this movie, not everything does. Seriously, this former
skate pro needs to tackle Shakespeare, or at least convince
a studio that he and Kevin Smith would totally rock on Fletch.
(They would, by the way.)
Ambling
its way through some low-key moneymaking schemes, the movie
doesn't really kick into high gear until its third act. I'm
torn over this, because most movies this year have had exactly
the opposite problem, falling apart after promising starts.
This one comes together for a completely satisfying and often
hilarious last half-hour.
What
keeps you interested up until that point is in the smaller
performances. From Freaks and Geeks, Martin Starr makes
the transition to adult comedy roles slightly less awkwardly
than expected. As John's fiancée Elaine, Leslie Mann actually
imbues her role with a dramatic arc. She could have gotten
away with less in an underwritten role, proving that more
movies need her.
The most
intense performance comes from John C. McGinley, as Detective
Charles, a cop so close to busting John and Duff for a string
of heists and yet so far. In a part that could easily have
fit in a Kids In The Hall sketch, McGinley steals every scene
that he's in. Unfortunately, he doesn't get nearly enough
interaction with Green; he might have brought up the MTV celeb's
performance up a couple of notches.
For those
fans of outtakes, McCulloch has made the odd choice of stringing
them all in after the credits are over. If you can
wait that long, they're mildly amusing, just like the rest
of the movie.
