Review of Tower Heist (2011) by Johnnyhollywood — 16 Jan 2012

Stiller's Eleven.

Billed as a more comedically oriented version of Ocean's Eleven, Brett Ratner's lighthearted caper Tower Heist fails to reach the heights it occasionally seems capable of. One area in which it is similar to Soderbergh's trilogy, however, is the monster cast. Where Ocean's collected almost every major star in the world at the time and thrust them into the same film, Heist boasts an intriguing mix of comedic heavyweights, old-school skill players and young talent. The whole operation never quite comes together, resulting in an average way to spend a couple of hours, but certainly nothing uproarious.

Josh (Ben Stiller) is the diligent manager of The Tower, friendly with its many residents, but none more so than wealthy financier Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda). So friendly, in fact, that he trusts Shaw with the management and investment of his employees' pension fund. But after Shaw is arrested for fraud, Josh's view of his former friend changes when he is told that legal recovery of the money is unlikely. So, with the help of fellow employees (Casey Affleck, Michael Pena, Gabourey Sidibe), an out-of-luck tenant (Matthew Broderick) and petty crook Slide (Eddie Murphy), Josh plans the robbery of Shaw's apartment to reclaim what is his.

For a film so reliant on consistent comedy to earn appraisal, it opens very slowly, trudging along with a greater priority placed upon plot foundations than actual humour. This would be acceptable in a film of this genre if the director had something captivating to offer, such as some sort of story arc or a handful of subplots that would allow the audience a genuine emotional interest in each character. The problem is that Heist takes the path of least resistance when establishing backstories; so one has to wonder why so much time was devoted to them in the early stages, subsequently limiting the time for what the audience came to see. Furthermore, Ratner dances with a romantic subplot throughout most of the second half, but never fully commits to the arc, rendering the whole substory lifeless and unnecessary. Admittedly, the film kicks into a higher gear when Murphy is finally injected. Although he is never able to truly let loose courtesy of a fairly inoffensive script, his solid timing and snappy delivery hark back to his success as a stand-up comedian in the eighties, and his performance is the dim highlight in a film filled with 'okays' and 'so-sos.' Murphy shares most of the one-liners with Pena, whose comedic skills are surprising considering his resume of dramas and actioners up to this point. Above-average comedic sensibilities between the two are good enough to turn a groan into a chuckle and a chuckle into a laugh but again, a predictable, unambitious screenplay keen on satisfying all ages limits the laughter.

The climax is actually quite tense, and can create some scary images for those terrified of heights. This is despite all its absurdity for the same reason that zany set pieces are always excusable in this context: it's a comedy. How did the team make it all the way to Shaw's apartment without being spotted? Surely, with all the people in the city that day for the Thanksgiving parade, wouldn't someone have alerted the police to a gang of men dressed in black dangling out of a window? Doesn't matter, it's a comedy.

The ending is an expectedly upbeat, neatly packaged one, topped off with a hubris-smashing act of selflessness by Josh. This might have meant more in a serious film, but adds no extra weight to the story here due to a lack of follow-though. Tower Heist might elate, will probably disappoint, but at least won't be looked upon as an unmitigated disaster by film's end.

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