Review of Kabluey (2007) by Josh G — 09 Jul 2009

Kabluey is about a man named Salman whose character ranges from absurdly comic, as when he laminates everything at work, to naively sweet. He uses all of his money to drive to Anytown, U.S.A., where his sister-in-law lives with her two bratty children. His brother is off in Iraq fighting them Injuns, so Salman has come to help Leslie (Kudrow) take care of her children in the meantime.

Leslie is not grateful. In fact, most everybody in the movie seems like a total jerk. All except for our hero Salman, that is. He takes a job as a big, blue, faceless mascot for a failing dot-com company that only pays $6 per hour, all to help Leslie out. He endures derision and embarassment, all for the sake of being a nice guy.

That's about it. There's a thread on IMDB from a commenter praising the film for not having a "Hollywood" ending, but it absolutely does. Despite being an indie comedy, the movie is nothing but a light-hearted feel-okay romp that doesn't tread anywhere especially controversial. Salman hangs out and through the magic of anonymity, teaches everybody a thing or two, or else helps them to find the thing that they desire most, or something. He tries to build a relationship with the kids, despite the fact that they whisper death threats to him when they first meet. Take a guess how it works out.

And, um, the kids are annoying and unbelievable. A supermarket employee jumps in Salman's face, snapping photographs of him and accusing him of being a kidnapper. Is it wrong of me to be bothered by the stark unrealism of these scenes? A lot of the humor tries way too hard. I could hear the lines being said and be fully conscious of the fact that they must have sounded a lot better on paper. But once they come out of the actors' mouth, all hope is lost.

I wish I could say that there was a "best" moment in the film, some scene that exhibited an emotion that would have been remarkable if carried all the way through. But I don't think that there was anything like that. It was pure rental through-and-through, something to watch when there's nothing else to watch. Not bad, really, but nothing worth recommending. Don't feel bad if you miss this movie.

P.S. Lisa Kudrow looks so old here. Was that intentional?