Review of So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993) by Edith N — 06 May 2008

Gods, I love this movie. It's silly and overdone in places and completely ridiculous on its face, but it's one of the funniest movies Mike Myers has ever done. There's Mike Myers as Charlie [i]and[/i] Stuart MacKenzie (Stuart is another argument as to why the fine [i]Twin Peaks[/i] people should've given us the whole Kyle McLachlan [i]SNL[/i] episode), and Anthony LaPaglia as his crazy cop best friend who just wants his job to be like it is on TV. (What does Charlie do, other than beat poetry, anyway? Beat poets don't make a lot.) With Alan Arkin as the trying-to-help-out boss. Actually, it's one of the movies I cite when I'm trying to explain how [i]awesome[/i] Alan Arkin is, because he totally steals all the scenes that he's in. And it's an ideal movie to watch when you're sick, as I am, because there's nothing complicated to think about, though it's not just dumb, either. A dumb comedy wouldn't expect you to know what the hell beat poetry is.

Charlie is a guy who is totally paranoid about commitment. He finds any excuse he can to break up with girls, in no small part because he's afraid they'll leave him first. When we first meet him, he's reading a poem about an ex whom he accuses of having stolen his cat. (She hasn't, probably, but we'll never know.) Later, on his way to his parents' house, he stops by "Meats of the World" to pick up a haggis and meets (ha!) Harriet (Nancy Travis). He falls for her, which we know will end badly. However, he really does love her, and--I don't think I'm giving much away, here--they get married. This despite an article in what his mother (Brenda Fricker) calls "the paper" ([i]The Weekly World News[/i], sadly no longer in print) about "Mrs. X," a woman who has killed three husbands while on their honeymoon. He overcomes his fear of this, only to have it revived after the ceremony.

This, obviously, has the makings of wicked comedy built right in. Anything where the story is equally likely to be serious drama can also make a hell of a black comedy, and this is no exception. This is also the movie I spent most of the second [i]Austin Powers[/i] movie longing for. It's quietly witty, clever without nudging you in the ribs all the time. Yes, Stuart MacKenzie is a ridiculous, over-the-top stereotype, but the film doesn't try to make you believe him--even though he is, apparently, based on Mike Myers's own father. He's the only false note, and somehow, the harmony blends around him so that he's not as much of a problem as Fat Bastard was. (Well, Fat Bastard had a lot of other problems going for him.) But there's beat poetry in it, and the film just assumes that you'll know what that is. It lingers on a "Jack Kerouac Alley" street sign. It expects you to know where and what Alcatraz is.

Okay, no, it's not high art. But it is pretty clever, and it is pretty well-filmed. Besides, I've got a stack of high art in the hallway right now, and I'm too sick to do anything about it. Heck, I've got one out there that claims to be a hilarious satire, and I couldn't watch it, because subtitles and cold meds don't combine terribly well. I will also note that several of the scenes seem to be shot on locations used in [i]Vertigo[/i], which is its own kind of clever. For a light comedy, it's actually very good--I mean, it manages to be a light dark comedy!

So why am I only giving this masterpiece an 8? Well, there [i]is[/i] Stuart MacKenzie, and Amanda Plummer. Seriously--has she ever been in anything ever where her acting wasn't actually overacting? Because I haven't seen it. It's a little overdone, in short, and while it's witty, it's not quite witty enough to overcome that. However, it's easily about the second-best movie Mike Myers was ever in. (I like [i]Wayne's World[/i] and have many happy memories of it.).