THE GREAT BUCK HOWARD
Written & Directed by Sean McGinly
Produced by Tom Hanks & Gary Goetzman
Released by Magnolia Pictures
USA. 87 min. Rated PG
With John Malkovich, Colin Hanks, Emily Blunt, Ricky Jay, Griffin Dunne & Steve Zahn
 

“I’m announced by tape. Always have been, always will be.” Buck makes this demand quite clear to an over-eager stage manager. In fact, his cassette tape intro says it all, describing an old school performer (61 appearances on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show) who’s unwilling to change with the times, and for that fact pays the price of obscurity. Buck Howard is loosely based on an actual mentalist, the Amazing Kreskin, a once-popular performer. In fact, Buck’s signature closing effect is a famous Kreskin move. (If he can’t find where the audience has hidden his performance fee, he will forfeit it to charity.)

Buck (John Malkovich) is caught somewhere between quaint anachronism and stale celebrity—a rather unusual mix. His mentalist act (which looks like magic, but should more appropriately be attributed to mind control and/or ESP) is impressive in a burlesque-era song and dance way, but his glory days are far over, and his ego trips—which mostly involve making special requests—are painful for an audience to watch. Despite a Prairie Home Companion bumpkin-ness that ironically makes the man somewhat endearing, his insecurities constantly surface, and as Buck drops on the likeability scale, so goes the film.

A doughy-faced Colin Hanks pulls off an impressive performance as Troy, Buck’s assistant, who actually sees something to like in the old codger. Still to me, the younger Hanks is a weird personification of the early comic performances and later maturity of his father, Tom (who phones in a small role in this one); a kid grown old, too fast in the image of his famous dad. Troy’s choice to drop out of law school and follow Buck around the country, however, is too scripted and downright dull, serving quite poorly as our main point of access to Buck’s story. We’re left with the sense that the film could have been a lot funnier if Buck had actually gotten under Troy’s skin, as he did his previous assistants. I wanted to see a fistfight, but the sentimentality (run-of-the-mill emotional responses, kept in time by an absolutely nauseating score) is sort of embarrassing.

John Malkovich never quite builds a Royal Tenenbaum out of Buck Howard’s epic self-centeredness. Surprisingly, after Being John Malkovich's testament to this hugely celebrated actor’s ability to make fun of himself, The Great Buck Howard feels quite the opposite. It’s as if Malkovich believes too much in this silly character embodying some kind of forgotten bit of Americana, and plays the sad nostalgia to death. Unfortunately, his magic tricks (excuse me, mentalist effects) just aren’t that powerful. This one’s a miss. Michael Lee
March 23, 2009