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Reel Time
Inarticulate execution is like kryptonite to ‘Hancock’
Once again, a clever premise loses steam as a blockbuster plot unravels
By LEE CLARK ZUMPE
Article published on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 |
It isn’t Will Smith’s fault.
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![[Image]](/content_images/070808_lemovies-02.jpg) |
| Photo courtesy of COLUMBIA PICTURES |
| When Hancock (Will Smith, left), saves the life of a PR exec, he tries to return the favor by cleaning up the disgruntled superhero’s public image, despite the fact that his wife, Mary (Charlize Theron, right) thinks that Hancock is a lost cause. |
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“Hancock” gets off to a promising start. Here’s a unique portrait of an unenthusiastic, dejected superhero: Smith plays a despondent, alcoholic guy with extraordinary powers and an unclear past, an overwhelmingly antagonistic attitude and a city that’s sick of his costly heroics.
Every time Hancock tries to save the day, he leaves a wake of destruction in his path.
Moral: Don’t guzzle booze and fly through the steel and concrete canyons of Los Angeles.
Then Hanccok saves the life of kindhearted PR whiz Ray Embrey, played by Jason Bateman. Bateman tackles the role with the right degree smoothness and sparkle, painting Embrey as a huckster with good intentions. To compensate Hancock for saving his life, Embrey offers to help the superhero project a new image that will appeal to the citizens of Los Angeles.
So far, so good. “Hancock” has maintained a comfortable pace, blending action and humor with a restrained dash of introspection. Smith conveys the character’s cynicism as well as his internal sadness. The viewer is sympathetic, though nothing particularly profound has happened.
The movie then makes an abrupt turn and grows reflective and philosophical. Hancock is forced to plumb the depths of his soul as he tries to cope with both his super-human powers and his crippling human frailties. On Embrey’s advice, he apologizes for his indiscretions and answers for his many offenses as any other person would.
Again, Smith adroitly expresses the struggle going on within the character.
Though tangential to the somewhat fluffy storyline thus far, “Hancock” might have made the heart-of-darkness motif work had it not abandoned it as hastily as it had introduced it.
There comes a point in the film where the promising plotlines taper off and a new element is introduced. Many critics have suggested it is a twist in the tale … more appropriately, it is a blatant departure from the developing story and a disjointed attempt at reformatting the film into a high-energy action flick replete with overly ambitious CGI sequences.
In comic lingo, from this point on, there are lots of POWs, KA-BLAMs and SPLATs.
Embrey’s wife, Mary, played by Charlize Theron, becomes a pivotal figure for the balance of the movie. Theron never really connects with the audience, never really emerges from the two-dimensional character that is no doubt sorely restricted by the script.
As the frayed story continues to unravel and the inarticulate execution becomes more painful to endure, believability goes out the window. Even in a superhero flick, suspension of disbelief is attainable. But when the moviemakers start offering explanations for things which should be left unstated, they simply point out how implausible the idea really is.
By now, Smith doesn’t have much acting to do. The script confines him to action sequences and bits of dialogue. The juggernaut the movie has become is his kryptonite.
In just over 90 minutes, “Hancock” goes from being a somewhat dark comedy about a miserable superhero to a brooding assessment of the role of heroes in society to a faltering and sometimes incoherent series of skirmishes and dogfights with unlikely and unworthy foes that seem more like an afterthought.
Still, it isn’t Smith’s fault.
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Article published on Tuesday, July 8, 2008
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