Review of The Pink Panther 2 (2009) by Chads. — 08 Feb 2009

Robert Wagner plays the nephew of The Phantom, a playboy/jewel thief played by David Niven in Blake Edwards' "The Pink Panther", the 1963 original that started it all. In order to separate Clouseau from his wife, the young American places a call to the inspector's hotel room from an elevator, in which he employs a fake French accent by lifting his nose with an index finger.

Steve Martin's take on Inspector Jacques Clouseau seems closer in spirit to Wagner's brief French impersonation than the late Peter Sellers, who, albeit not French, transcended the pitfalls of unintentional caricature.

Martin's performance is nothing more than a funny voice sans the digit to the schnoz. Whereas old school Clouseau was oblivious to the mayhem he'd inadvertently foment, new school Clouseau is a post-modernist construct; he's in on the joke, a fire-starter.

Martin's bumbling act doesn't have the accidental nature that Sellers had down pat, largely because the American comic plays Clouseau as being too smart for slapstick. In one scene, returning to the restaurant he had previously helped burn down, he asks the maitre d', "Remember me?" with a self-satisfied sneer in his voice that telegraphs the detective's intention to play arsonist again, once the comic set-piece goes through the requisite convolutions.

If Sellers was given the same line, he'd deliver the line with a look of sheepishness on his face, and humility in his voice. This Clouseau projects a veneer of latent intellectuality. This Clouseau seems wholly capable of solving the case.

That's why "The Pink Panther 2" misses the mark.