Review of The Great Buck Howard (2008) by Nathaniel H — 04 Sep 2009

When did John Malkovich become the creepiest actor on the planet? The Great Buck Howard is a film that flies its safe sanitized granny pants proudly (it's both childish and totally square). In the main role as Buck Howard, a once renowned mentalist (his main claim to fame is the 70 appearances he made on The Tonight Show), Malkovich is a demanding, eccentric/buffoon of dubious sexual orientation. No matter what city he's in he throws up his arms and lets out a show-biz "I love this town!" before subjecting whoever greets him to his quite nearly confrontational orangutan grip handshake. Clearly we are meant to see him as a finicky, self-promoting jerk, but counter-balanced with the "gee it was a formative time in my confused younger years" main story of Troy Gable (Colin Hanks playing the law school drop out who finds himself working for Howard) we are intended to also see the endearingly goofy, sweetness within the prick showman. It's in that regard that the aggressive and pompous screen acting of Malkovich fails and so do the filmmakers. Much as he did in the terrible Color Me Kubrick, Malkovich just freaks the hell out of me.

The screenplay (written by Sean McGinly, who also directed it) is brittle and dopey with sigh-inducing exchanges like this one when Gable and Howard's new publicist are about to kiss on a hotel bed:

"I have a boyfriend"-lame pause-"Oh forget I said anything" (onward to the sex, not shown of course). As Howard's publicist Emily Blunt is a refreshing and sexy presence. Also good is Colin Hanks who I find to be stiff and lacking in charisma in most roles. He's laid back and winning here. The surprise is that his real life dad the charming Mr. Tom Hanks has a cameo as Gable's father and turns in a bunched up, mediocre performance. And possibly aping last summer's Tropic Thunder, McGinly throws in cameos from television personalities like Conan O'Brien and Martha Stewart that try way too hard to feel relevant.

If McGinly wants us to believe that greatness really is a state of mind, then he proves his point conclusively with this fairly uninspired production and predictable storytelling. It's small and feels small, like a made-for-television feature. There's affection in his approach but no magic.