Review of The Great Buck Howard (2008) by Soubrette C — 23 Jul 2009

I knew nothing of this movie when I rented it, only that it starred Colin Hanks AND Tom Hanks, the first movie they've ever starred in together, with Tom playing Colin's father no less. The prospect of seeing father and son act opposite each other on screen was interesting enough for me to give it a rent; plus John Malkovich being in it didn't hurt either. Their scenes together weren't that memorable, but what was, and this is probably the only thing this movie has going for it, was Malkovich's performance as the title character, The Great Buck Howard.

Buck is an aging mentalist whose career is circling the toilet. Hardly anyone knows who he is, or that he appeared on Johnny Carson more than sixty times. It's late in his life, and everyone seems to know that his career is over, everyone except for Buck.

This is where Colin Hanks's charcter, Troy, comes in; a dissilluioned twenty-something who is unhappy with his life, and wants to find himself. He decides to quit law school and start his future as a writer. The only problem is he's short on money, which leads him to take a job as an assistant to the once famous Buck Howard.

Buck Howard is an asshole; a jerk who has frequent mood swings when he doesn't get what he wants. Yet, depite the fact that Buck sometimes treats him like crap, Troy is still inspired by Buck's tricks, the main one being his finale, where he has an audience member hide his fee for the night; if he doesn't find it, he doesn't get paid. After decades of shows, Buck has yet to fail in finding his fee.

The problem I had with this movie was that, despite a great performance by Malkovich, Colin Hanks's character doesn't really do anything other than react to Buck's behavior. This is obviously his story, and the resolution we get with his characer seems like a cop out. Sure, we see what happens to Buck in the end, and honestly, I think anyone could have guessed where his story was leading, but being that this was Troy's story, I would have liked to have seen more done with his character's story arc. It wasn't bad mind you, it was just pretty plain is all.

I would recommend giving The Great Buck Howard a rental. It's interesting enough, and isn't that long or boring to sit through. Plus, it's worth it just to see Malkovich's performance.