Dont know why Im doing this to myself, but Ive spent the past few days immersing myself in Robin Williams odd late-career film repertoire. Money troubles, and struggles with mental health and sobriety, led him to accept roles in either low-paying indie art house flicks, or embarrassingly low-brow slob comedies. This film is an example of the former. He plays a hapless and penniless travel agent who stumbles upon a corpse and uses it to cash in on his missing brothers life insurance policy. But then, guess who shows up alive? Hijinks apparently ensue, but Im only a few minutes into it and havent experienced them yet. What I have determined is the filmmakers are quite intentionally aping the Coen brothers. Sadly, its obvious in Williams acting and mannerisms he was hoping this to be his comeback film for precisely that reason. But nobodys the Coen brothers except the Coen brothers, as the very existence of this film quite effectively demonstrates. And thats why you never heard of it until I just told you about it, nine years after it came out. By the way, it was while working on this movie that Williams broke more than 20 years of sobriety. He was buried today.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 02:41:04 +0000